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THE FIGHT AT LEXINGTON. Frontispiece. See page 128. 



The Child's Book of 
American History 



By 
ALBERT F. BLAISDELL 

AND 

FRANCIS K. BALL 

Authors of *' The American History Story-Book," " The 

Enghsh History Story-Book," "Hero Stories 

from American History," *' Short Stories 

from American History," etc. 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

FRANK T. MERRILL 



&tiiaoi lEMtum 



Boston 

Little, Brown, and Company 

1913 



Copyright^ 1913, 
By Little, Browk, akd Company. 

All rights reserved 
Published, September, 1913 



THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. SIMONDS & CO., BOSTON, U. 8. A. 



^ 



PREFACE 

This book is a supplementary history in- 
tended for use in the fourth and fifth grades 
of our pubhc schools, or for boys and girls 
from ten to fifteen years of age. It is also 
designed as a collateral reading book in con- 
nection with the study of one or more of the 
many elementary textbooks on American 
history. 

The authors have described in some detail 
a few of the more dramatic and picturesque 
events in the history of our country from the 
earliest times to the present day. The story 
form has been freely used because teachers of 
experience know that such material has the 
unmistakable mark of reality and that it is 
instinct with ^^ the magic of life.'' 

As in the other books of this series of his- 
torical readers, the authors have freely used 

V 



PREFACE 

such personal anecdotes and incidents as 
may serve to hold the attention because of 
their human interest. These stories, care- 
fully culled and rewritten from standard 
books and authors, rest on a substantial 
historical basis. 

It is not enough merely to read this book 
as we read the ordinary story-book, and 
then throw it aside. It should serve as one 
of the smaller foundation stones on which 
young pupils may build in due time a more 
extended and formal course in American 
history. To this intent, the study of this 
book should be enriched with such other his- 
torical material as teachers may advise their 
pupils to utilize from the school, home, or 
public library. 

Albert F. Blaisdell. 

Francis K. Ball. 

August, 1913. 



VI 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 




PAOB 




Preface 


V 


I. 


Columbus, the Wool Comber's Boy 


1 


II. 


John Cabot, the Merchant 


8 


III. 


The Fountain op Youth .... 


12 


IV. 


Virginia Dare 


18 


V. 


John Smith, Founder of Virginia . 


24 


VI. 


Pocahontas, the Indian Princess . 


30 


VII. 


The Story of the Mayflower . 


36 


VIII. 


Thanksgiving at Plymouth 


42 


IX. 


The Indians, and How They Lived 


48 


X. 


King Philip's War 


55 


XI. 


The Indians Attack Haverhill 


64 


XII. 


Betty Merrill and the Big Clock 


71 


XIII. 


Washington as a Boy 


77 


XIV. 


Washington as a Young Man . 


83 


XV. 


Life at Mount Vernon .... 


91 


XVI. 


The Defeat of General Bracdock 


97 


XVII. 


King George Taxes the Colonies . 


104 


XVIII. 


The Eve of the Revolution . 


112 



vu 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

XIX. " The Midnight Message of Paul Revere " 

XX. John Sevier, and How He Found His Wife 

XXI. Frontier Life in Indiana 

XXII. How Gold was Found in California . 

XXIII. Abraham Lincoln 

XXIV. Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel . 
XXV. The First Day at Gettysburg 

XXVI. Gettysburg Turns the Tide of War . 

XXVII. Old Abe, the Soldier Bird of Wisconsin 

XXVIII. " The Star - Spangled Banner " . 

XXIX. The Thirtieth of May .... 

Appendix 

Pronunciation of Proper Names . 



120 
130 
138 
144 
152 
163 
173 
180 
191 
199 
204 
209 
217 



Vlll 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Fight at Lexington .... Frontispiece 

The baby was baptized, with Grandfather White 

as godfather Page 21 

Captain Standish put on his armor and paraded 

hi^ Uttle company of twelve soldiers . . "45 

" True enough," replied the redskin. " That is 

the way it is with you English " . . . "57 

Gist wanted to kill the Indian .... "88 

He carried a wounded captain across the river to 

a place of safety " 171 



THE CHILD'S BOOK OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



COLUMBUS, THE WOOL COMBER S BOY 

MORE than four hundred years ago 
there hved in a large city in Italy 
a boy named Christopher Colum- 
bus. His father was a wool comber, and 
lived in a narrow street close to the sea. The 
lad worked with his father, but he did not 
wish to be a wool comber. He wanted to be 
a sailor. Every chance he got he would sit 
on the wharf and watch the big ships sailing 
away to other lands. He liked to listen to 
the stories the sailors told him of what they 
had seen and done in far-off countries. No 
wonder, then, that as the boy grew older, he 

1 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

longed more than ever to be a sailor and go 
to sea. 

'^ Some day/' he told his playmates, ^^ I 
will go to sea and sail to strange lands." 

'^ If you are really to be a sailor, my boy," 
said his kind father, ^^ you must be a good 
sailor. You must go to school and learn 
about the winds and the tides, and how to 
steer a vessel by the stars." 

The lad went to school. He studied long 
and hard, and his father and his teachers 
were soon proud of him. 

When Christopher got older, he was per- 
mitted to go to sea. He became captain of a 
small vessel, and sailed far and wide. After a 
time he became famous and sailed farther 
than anybody had been before. We must 
remember that in those days sailors did not 
dare to go far from land. The Atlantic Ocean 
was called the Sea of Darkness. Monsters 
big enough to swallow ships were said to live 
there. Even wise men of that time did not 
know that the earth was round. They thought 

2 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

it was flat, and believed if anybody went far 
enough he would come to the edge and fall off. 

Now Columbus was one of the few men of 
that time who did not beheve these stories. 
He felt sure that the earth was round. He 
beheved that by sailing west across the Sea 
of Darkness he should reach India, a land rich 
in gold, silks, spices, and precious stones. At 
last he made up his mind to try and find this 
new way to the East. 

But Columbus was a poor man. He had 
no ships and no money. He asked some rich 
men to help him. They only laughed at him. 
They even said he was crazy. He went from 
one country to another in search of help. He 
told his plan to kings. And at last, after 
eighteen long years of travel from court to 
court, after eighteen long years of patient 
toil, he found favor with Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, the king and queen of Spain. 

" I will fit out some vessels for you,'' said 
the queen; '^ I will even sell my jewels, if I 
must, to get money enough.'' 

3 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Columbus finally received three small ships, 
manned with ninety sailors. With these ves- 
sels, no larger than some of the fishing-smacks 
of our day, that fearless man bade good-by 
to the land and set sail on the most daring of 
voyages across the unknown ocean. Other 
brave men had sailed far away along distant 
coasts. But Columbus was the first that went 
forth to learn what lay beyond the trackless 
sea. For many, many long and anxious 
days they sailed. No wonder the men be- 
came afraid, and wanted to turn back. But 
Columbus would not listen. 

'^ Sail on, sail on,'^ he begged them; and 
when they got unruly, he threatened, and 
coaxed, and bribed them, to get them to 
obey. 

^^ He is indeed crazy, '^ they began to say to 
one another; " let us throw the poor fellow 
overboard; we will say that he fell into the 
ocean while watching the stars. ^' 

But one day, when they had been sailing 
for more than a month, a bird came and 

4 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

lighted on one of the vessels. Soon afterward 
flocks of birds were seen. A branch of a tree 
with berries on it floated on the waves. The 
next night a sailor on watch saw far away a 
light, which seemed to rise and fall. 

^^ I believe there is land not far away/* 
said Columbus, who paced the deck of his 
little vessel all night long. 

A sailor climbed into the rigging. 

^^ Land! Land! " he cried joyfully. 

In the dim light of the cool morning the 
long-looked-for land could be seen. The 
vessels cast their anchors, and all waited anx- 
iously for the day. At sunrise a lovely island 
lay before them. This was on the morning of 
October 12, 1492. 

How full of joy Columbus and all his men 
were! They rowed ashore. They fell on their 
knees and kissed the ground. Columbus 
wore a red robe. He solemnly planted the 
cross and took the land in the name of the 
king and queen. Strange men with copper- 
colored skin and long straight black hair 

5 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

came down to the shore. These red men 
thought Columbus and his companions had 
dropped from the sky. And they called the 
vessels big white birds. 

The place where Columbus first landed 
was one of the cluster of islands called the 
Bahamas. Columbus believed that he had 
reached India, and so he called the red men 
Indians. He had sailed west to reach India; 
instead of finding India he had found a new 
world; he had discovered America. 

After a time Columbus returned to Spain. 
With what shouts and cheers the people 
greeted the great sailor and his men when his 
little vessels came sailing into the harbor! 
It was a wonderful story that Columbus had 
to tell the king and queen and the Spanish 
court. The people were much excited when 
they saw the red men, the strange animals 
and plants, and many other curious things 
from the new world. 

Columbus made several more trips across 
the Atlantic, but he did not dream that he 

6 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

had discovered a new world. He died in 
the behef that he had found a group of is- 
lands near India. In reality he had opened 
the way across the Sea of Darkness. It was 
now easy for others to follow. 



II 

JOHN CABOT, THE MERCHANT 

WHEN Columbus was becoming fa- 
mous as a sailor, there lived in 
England an Italian by the name of 
John Cabot. He was a sea captain too, and 
a merchant; and he had traveled in remote 
lands. One day when he was looking about 
the streets of a city in Arabia, he saw camels 
coming into town. They were carrying loads 
of rich spices. 

'' Where do those spices come from? '' he 
asked one of the drivers. 

'' From a land far to the east." 

Now Cabot thought that if he sailed west 

far enough he might reach the land from 

which the spices came. Then the news of 

what Columbus had done reached England. 

8 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Shortly after this Cabot came home from a 
voyage. He asked King Henry of England 
to fit out a vessel for him. The king said he 
would do so. 

Five years after Columbus made his first 
voyage, Cabot sailed across the Atlantic to 
find a new way to India and China. He did 
not find what he went after. But he found 
what was of still more importance. He 
found the mainland of North America. 

This was in the year 1497. Cabot probably 
reached the coast of Labrador. He landed 
and took possession of the country in the name 
of King Henry of England. He then sailed 
along the bare and desolate shore for nearly 
a thousand miles, but came upon no such 
lovely spot as Columbus had done on his first 
voyage. Soon afterward he sailed back to 
England and told King Henry that he had 
found the coast of China. The king was 
greatly pleased and gave him a large sum of 
money. 

Cabot was now a famous man. He was 
9 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

called the Great Admiral. He dressed in 
fine silks of bright colors, like the other great 
men of his time. So fine did he look that a 
crowd used to run after him when he walked 
about the streets of London. 

'' This is all very well/' said King Henry, 
^' but where are the spices and precious stones 
that you were to bring home, sir captain? 
You had better make another voyage and 
see what you can find.'' 

So once more Cabot set out. This time he 
sailed south along our coast as far as Cape 
Cod. He planted the flag of England on our 
shore and took possession of the land. 

Nothing more is known about this daring 
sailor. It is believed that he died and was 
buried at sea. His son Sebastian, who sailed 
with him on his second voyage, lived for 
sixty years after this. He became one of the 
greatest sea-captains of his time. 

Like so many other sailors of those days, 
the Cabots told strange stories of what they 
had seen across the ocean. They said the 

10 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

sea was so full of fish that their vessels had 
hard work to sail along some parts of the 
coast. And they declared the bears were 
hungry enough to swim out to sea and catch 
codfish in their claws. 

The Cabots did not bring back gold or 
spices. They saw only thick woods, wild 
animals, and a few savages dressed in skins. 

King Henry and the English people did 
not care for these things; and so it was many 
years before anybody thought of coming to 
our coast to live. But we must remember 
that the discoveries of John Cabot gave 
England the right to claim the larger part of 
North America as her own. 



11 



Ill 

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH 

THERE lived in the days of Columbus 
an old Spanish nobleman by the name 
of Ponce de Leon. He had fought 
long and hard for his king. He had sailed 
with Columbus on his second voyage across 
the Sea of Darkness. As a favor the Spanish 
king had made him governor of Porto Rico. 
The old Spanish knight set sail for this 
island with eight vessels and several hundred 
soldiers. He laid out the city now called 
San Juan. He built a fine house for himself 
and called it the White Castle. Although 
Ponce de Leon was now a rich man, he 
was still greedy. He had been told that the 
island was rich in gold and precious stones. 
But there was nothing of either to be found. 

12 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

So the poor old fellow vented his spite on the 
kind and gentle natives. He had hundreds 
of them killed, and many others he hunted 
in the woods like wild beasts. He robbed the 
Indians of what they had, and enslaved as 
many as he could. Then he was not allowed 
to be governor any longer. He was unhappy 
and wanted to go in search of a new country. 

For many years a strange story had been 
going round among the natives of the new 
world. It was a tale about a lovely island 
far away to the north. On this island 
there was said to be a spring of healing 
water, the most wonderful in all the world. 
'^ Bimini ^' was the queer name the natives 
gave to this island, of which they were never 
tired of talking. 

One day when the old Spaniard sat in his 
White Castle looking out on the sea, he over- 
heard some of his slaves speaking of this 
magic spot. 

^^ I tell you,'^ said one, '^ nobody ever 
grows old in Bimini.'^ 

13 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Why not? '' 

^^ Because there is the fountain of youth. 
If you drink of its waters, you never can grow 
old; you will always keep young/' 

The old governor pricked up his ears. A 
drink from such a fountain was just what 
he needed. He was old, feeble, and un- 
happy. Oh that he might never die! If he 
could only become young again, what brave 
deeds he would do! How hard he would 
fight again for his king! What glory and 
gold he would win for himself in this new 
world ! 

He sent for the slave. 

^' You were speaking of Bimini. What of 
Bimini? Where is Bimini? '' he asked. 

^^ An island, master, far away to the north. 
It is more than five days' sail." 

^^ Come, tell me all about it. Have you 
ever been there? " 

'^ No, master, it is too far away for us to 
go in our canoes. But we have heard about 
it all our lives." 

14 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The poor slave then told what he had heard 
about the magical fountain. The old governor 
called other slaves and asked them. They 
all told the same story. The island lay far 
to the north. It was a land of lovely flowers, 
with this most wonderful spring of clear 
water. The good ships of the white men 
could sail there in a few days. 

Ponce de Leon decided to go in search of 
the magical fountain of youth. He fitted out 
three vessels and sailed away toward the 
northwest. When the little fleet sailed past 
the tiny island where Columbus had first 
landed, the old governor shouted to the 
natives along the shore. 

^^ Bimini! Where is Bimini? '' 

The Indians pointed to the northwest. 
Nobody had ever seen the island, but all had 
heard of it. 

One lovely morning Ponce de Leon came in 
sight of a strange coast. The day was Easter 
Sunday, which in Spain is known as the 
Feast of Flowers. The land was covered 

15 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

with beautiful flowers. The natives were 
gentle and friendly. 

" Is this Bimini? '' cried the governor. 
'^ Is this the land of the magical spring? '' 

Nobody could understand. 

At all events, because it was Easter, and 
there was an abundance of flowers, Ponce de 
Leon called the land Florida. 

Up and down the coast the old Spaniard 
sailed in search of the fountain of youth. 
Many and many springs of clear, cool 
water were found in this land of flowers. 
As the story goes, he drank from all; but 
his youth never came back. He bathed in 
many gentle rivers; but he kept growing 
older. 

At last he gave up the search and sailed 
back to Porto Rico. 

Ten years went by. Once more Ponce de 
Leon sailed in search of the magical foun- 
tain. This time he was cruel to the natives. 
They in turn killed many of the Spaniards 
and drove the others back to their ships. 

16 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The old governor was mortally wounded by 
an arrow. 

" Carry me back to Cuba/' he said to his 
men; '' I shall never find the wonderful 
fountain of youth/' 

Back to Cuba he was carried. After many 
days' suffering from his wound, the poor old 
man died. He died wishing that he might 
have found his lost youth. 



17 



IV 

VIRGINIA DARE 

WHEN the Cabots returned to Eng- 
land, they had neither gold nor 
spices. The English people soon 
lost interest in the New World; and for almost 
a hundred years they did not try to find out 
any more about it. 

Now at the time of Queen Elizabeth lived 
the brave and noble Walter Raleigh. It was 
he who spread his red velvet cloak in the 
mud to keep Good Queen Bess, as she was 
called, from soiling her fine slippers. She 
received him at court, and gave him leave to 
plant an English nation in America. 

So Sir Walter fitted out two vessels and 
sent them across the Atlantic. These ships 
sailed many miles along the coast of America 

18 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

before they could find a safe harbor. At last 
they came to a quiet place where it seemed 
as if they were in a garden filled with all kinds 
of sweet-smelling flowers. This land of 
strange and beautiful birds, of vines which 
dipped their fragrant clusters into the surge of 
the ocean, was Roanoke Island, on the coast 
of what is now North Carolina. 

Queen Elizabeth was pleased with what 
Sir Walter's vessels had done, and gave a 
name to the region. 

'^ The goodly land shall be named Virginia, 
in honor of my maiden life." 

The first two bands of settlers in Virginia 
dug for gold instead of planting corn. The 
homesick men nearly starved to death before 
a vessel came along to carry them back to 
England. Three years after this a third 
colony of men, with their wives and chil- 
dren, was sent out from England to make 
homes for themselves in this wonderful new 
land. 

*^ It is a beautiful spot," said John White, 
19 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the leader of this colony, when the vessel 
drew near the coast and he caught sight of 
the trees and the grass. 

On the day that they landed on Roanoke 
Island, the men, women, and children went 
to work. The men cut down trees and built 
log houses. They tilled the rich soil, and soon 
had fine fields of corn and potatoes. The 
women cooked, washed, and baked. The 
boys brought water from the springs, chopped 
wood, caught fish, picked berries, and climbed 
the trees after wild grapes. 

One sunny morning in August, only a 
few weeks after the people had landed, the 
little village was astir with strange good 
news. In the log cabin of Eleanor Dare, the 
daughter of the governor, the first English 
child in America was born. It was a little 
girl. 

'^ What shall we call this tiny pink stranger? 
What shall we name our baby? " asked the 
good people of one another; for they were all 
interested in the child. 

20 




THE BABY WAS BAPTIZED, WITH GRANDFATHER WHITE AS 
GODFATHER. Page 21. 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Let us call her Elizabeth, after our good 
queen/' the men suggested. 

'' No/' rephed the women, '' let us call her 
Virginia, after this lovely new land to which 
she has come." 

'' Yes, yes," cried they all, '' call her Vir- 
ginia." 

'' Indeed, she is our baby, the baby of the 
colony," added Grandfather White; '' we 
will call her Virginia." 

'^ Very well," the father and mother agreed; 
'^ let that be her name." 

A few days afterwards, on a Sunday morn- 
ing, the settlers, some sailors from the vessels, 
and a few Indians came to the cabin of 
Eleanor Dare. The baby was baptized, with 
Grandfather White as godfather. Thus the 
first white child born of English parents in 
America was christened Virginia Dare. And 
the little white-faced girl grew so sweet and 
gentle that the Indians called her the White 
Fawn. 

By and by food began to fail the settlers. 
21 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'^ I will go back to England," said Governor 
White. ^' Take good care of yourselves and 
of Baby Virginia when I am away/' 

^' We will, we will,'' cried the people from 
the shore as the ship sailed on its long 
voyage. 

England was at war with Spain when the 
governor reached his old home. No vessel 
could be spared to carry him back. For four 
long years the good man waited. At last a 
ship was given him, and he started for Vir- 
ginia. 

One day the vessel came sailing into the 
harbor at Roanoke. Nobody came to the 
shore to meet it. The log houses were in 
ashes. The people were gone. There was 
nothing but ruins and silence to greet the 
broken-hearted grandfather. 

He searched for the colony far and near. 

" Did my people not wish to live with 
you? " he asked the Indians. 

The red men could tell him nothing. 

At last, crushed with sorrow. Governor 
22 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

White returned to England, where he died 
soon after, of a broken heart. 

Do you ask what became of Virginia Dare? 

Some think that the White Fawn grew up 
and became an Indian princess. If the In- 
dians knew, they never told. 



23 



JOHN SMITH, FOUNDER OF VIRGINIA 

THE life of John Smith, founder of 
Virginia, is as interesting and thrilHng 
as a story. When he was a boy, in 
England, he learned a trade, but ran away. 
Like so many other runaway boys, he found 
the world a hard place. He went to sea, but 
was shipwrecked. On another occasion he 
was thrown overboard, but swam ashore. 
He was once robbed of his money, and had 
to beg to get back home. 

Not long after, he became a soldier and 
fought against the Turks. One day a Turk- 
ish officer said he would fight any Christian 
single-handed, to amuse the ladies. Young 
Smith took the man at his word. He killed 
the Turk and cut off his head. In another 

24 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

fight he once killed three Turks. He was so 
proud of his deed, he tells us, that he had a 
picture of the men put on his flag. 

At last he was captured by the Turks, and 
sold as a slave. His owner was cruel and put 
an iron collar round his neck. He then set 
his prisoner to work threshing wheat, and in a 
fit of anger hit him over the head with the 
flail. The young Englishman killed his mas- 
ter, took a bag of wheat for food, jumped on 
a horse, and rode for his life into the forest. 

After many hardships the young fellow got 
out of the country and reached his home in 
England. We may be sure that our hero 
found life at home pretty dull after his many 
narrow escapes and wonderful adventures 
in foreign countries. 

At this time there was a good deal of talk 
in England about sending out a colony to 
settle Virginia. The restless and daring John 
Smith liked the idea. No better place for 
brave deeds and strange adventures could be 
found than in the wilds of the New World. 

25 



THE CHILD ^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

He joined the company which was being 
formed, and set sail for America. On reach- 
ing the coast of Virginia, the Httle fleet of 
three vessels sailed up a river. They named 
it the James River, after King James of Eng- 
land. On its banks they found a pleasant 
place to build their log cabins, and called it 
Jamestown. Thus was laid, in the year 
1607, the foundation of the first permanent 
settlement of English people in the New 
World. 

At first the settlers had a hard time of it. 
They knew nothing about work. They were 
not used to laboring in the fields. They 
called themselves gentlemen. What did they 
care about cutting down trees and planting 
corn? They expected to pick up gold along 
the banks of the rivers. 

When the food they brought from England 
was gone, they came near starving. Many 
fell sick and died from lack of something to 
eat and proper shelter. Indeed, it is hard to 
see how the little settlement could have lived 

26 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

if it had not been for John Smith. He made 
the idle get to work. 

^' If you don't work/' he said, '^ you shall 
not eat." 

He showed the men how to cut down trees 
and build log huts. He sailed along the coast 
and made a map of it. With a few men he 
went on trips up the rivers and traded with 
the Indians. If the red men were ugly and 
would not trade, he won their good will by 
giving them hatchets and colored beads. 
Many of the settlers grew tired of the hard- 
ships and begged to go back to England, but 
he coaxed them to stay. 

At first the Indians were glad to see Cap- 
tain Smith and the pale-faced strangers. 
They treated them kindly and traded their 
corn for beads and trinkets. But pretty soon 
they began to think that the Englishmen 
wanted to rob them of their lands. So at 
last they would not give or sell their corn to 
the Jamestown settlement. 

Now Smith was shrewd as well as fearless. 
27 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

When his people were short of corn, he would 
set sail up the river in a small boat and go 
boldly among the savages. Before he came 
back, he would be sure to trade some little 
mirrors, blue beads, and trinkets for corn. 
Even if the Indians did not care to trade, he 
would in some way come back to the settle- 
ment with a boatload of food. 

On one of these trips, when he had others 
with him, the Indians attacked them and 
killed all of his men. He grabbed a redskin, 
and by holding him as a shield shot three of 
the savages. The place was swampy, how- 
ever, and he could not get away. He was 
easily captured. But he was quick-witted. 
He took out his pocket compass and began 
to amuse the savages by telling them about 
its use. The Indians were sure that he be- 
longed to another world, and did not dare 
to kill him. 

On another trip a young Indian was taken 
sick. Captain Smith, with a great show, 
wrote a few words on a piece of birch bark. 

28 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



^^ Let some brave take this to Jamestown, 
and my people will give him some medicine 
to make this boy well/' 

Back came the Indian with the medicine. 
This was too much for them. They were 
afraid to do harm to a man who could make a 
piece of bark talk. 

It would fill a book much larger than this 
to tell you about the fearless deeds and nar- 
row escapes of Captain John Smith. It is 
for us to remember that he was the founder 
of the first permanent English colony in the 
New World. Without his wise leadership the 
settlement of Jamestown would never have 
lived; and this band of pioneers laid the first 
foundation stone of our nation. 



29 



VI 

POCAHONTAS, THE INDIAN PRINCESS 

DURING his last days John Smith 
wrote a book of his adventures in 
the New World. Some people say 
that much of this is not true. They even 
doubt the story in which he describes how 
his life was saved by the Indian girl Poca- 
hontas. But for all that, the story is worth 
telling. 

One day Smith was tramping through the 
woods with some of his men, in search of 
com. All of a sudden an arrow whizzed by 
his head. The war whoop of the Indians 
followed, and the woods seemed full of sav- 
ages. His friends were killed, but he escaped 
into a swamp, where he sank up to his waist. 
It was of no use to fight longer. He was made 

30 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

a prisoner. With hands tied behind him, he 
was carried a captive from one village to an- 
other. The Indians did not dare to kill him. 
They knew too well that the palefaces had 
guns which made a noise hke thunder. 

After a time the Indians led their prisoner 
to their chief. His name was Powhatan. He 
sat on a rude kind of throne, covered with 
skins of wild beasts. His face and arms were 
painted red. About his neck was a string of 
small shells from the seashore. In his hair 
were feathers of many bright colors. A toma- 
hawk lay at his side. Gathered round him 
were warriors dressed in blankets. 

Now this great chief felt friendly toward 
his captive, for Captain Smith had once given 
him a tin washbasin, a red cloak, a brass ring, 
and a jackknife. These gifts, however, had 
made the savage chief so proud that for a 
long time he would not sell his com to the 
settlers at Jamestown. At another time 
Captain Smith had given him some blue 
beads, and told him that such were worn 

31 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

only by great kings. This so pleased King 
Powhatan that he traded a boatload of corn 
for a pound of them. 

Now Powhatan had a daughter, a little 
gir] ten or twelve years old. Her father 
called her Pocahontas. Captain Smith grew 
fond of the little Indian princess. He made 
her some pretty toys, which won her heart. 

Finally the Indians decided to put the 
white chief to death. As the story goes, 
Pocahontas cried bitterly when she heard 
that her father was going to take the life of 
her friend. 

A few days afterward. Captain Smith was 
brought before Powhatan and his braves. 
A big stone was brought and laid on the 
ground in the chief's wigwam. Powhatan 
again sat on his throne of furs, and his war- 
riors stood round in a circle. They looked 
fierce in their war paint. They were eager 
for the white man's death. The prisoner's 
arms were tied behind him. His head was 
laid on the stone. An Indian brave stood 

32 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



ready with his war club. The club was 
raised to strike. A scream was heard, and in 
rushed Pocahontas and threw herself on the 
captive. 

" Kill me/^ she cried, '^ kill me, but you 
shall not kill him.^' 

The Indian did not dare to strike. He 
would have killed his chief's beloved daugh- 
ter. The heart of the Indian chief was 
touched. Of all his children, he loved her 
best. 

^^ Let him live,'' said Powhatan; '^ he shall 
make toys and string beads for my daugh- 
ter." 

After a time he made a treaty with the 
English, and sent Captain Smith back to his 
friends at Jamestown. 

The settlers used to call Pocahontas ^^ the 
dearest daughter of the king." In after years 
she often came to the help of the English. 
One winter, when they were nearly starving, 
she brought them baskets of corn and deer 
meat. 

33 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

At another time she ran from home in the 
night and warned them of danger. 

^^ My father means to attack the settle- 
ment to-morrow night/' she said, and hurried 
away. 

The next day Captain Smith sent a mes- 
sage to Powhatan: ^^ Come whenever you 
please; we are ready for you.'' 

When the princess grew up and became a 
young woman of eighteen, an English settler 
named Rolfe fell in love with her. Pocahontas 
was baptized, and took the name of Rebecca. 
One day the little log church at Jamestown 
was prettily trimmed with wild flowers. 
This was the wedding day of Pocahontas and 
John Rolfe. The happy man took his fair 
bride to England. She was treated as a 
young princess. The king and queen of 
England sent for her and gave her presents. 
The people gathered in crowds to see the 
fair Indian girl. They had heard of her brave 
deed in saving the life of Captain Smith. She 
was petted by men and women of high rank. 

34 



THE CHILD ^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

^' She carries herself as the daughter of a 
king/' said one of the great men. 

All this was not good for the health of the 
princess. She grew tired and pale. She was 
homesick. She often wished she were once 
more in her father's wigwam, amid the noble 
woods and lovely flowers of her old home. 
She grew sick and died just as she was about 
to go back to Virginia. She was only twenty- 
two years old. 

'' Lady Rebecca/' as the princess was 
called in England, left a little baby boy. He 
went back to Virginia and grew up to become 
well known in that state. Many people in 
that part of the country are now proud to 
claim relationship to the son of Pocahontas, 
the Indian princess. 



35 



VII 

THE STORY OF THE MAYFLOWER 

NEARLY three hundred years ago the 
little vessel called the " Mayflower '' 
crossed the Atlantic in midwinter 
and reached the coast of Massachusetts. 
The people in this ship were the Pilgrims. 
Their homes had been in England. The 
English king did not treat them kindly; for 
he would not let them worship God as they 
wished. So they left their own land and went 
to Holland, where they lived about twelve 
years. 

Now we must know that the people of 
Holland speak Dutch. Soon the children of 
the Pilgrims were speaking the strange lan- 
guage. They were also learning Dutch ways 
and manners of living. All this did not please 
these sturdy Enghsh people. 

36 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

After a time they began to talk about the 
new land in far-away America. 

" Let us go to the New World/' they said, 
^^ and there make a new home for ourselves. 
Surely there we can worship God in our own 
simple way. Besides, we can bring up our 
children to speak our own language.'' 

So some of the Pilgrims hired a vessel and 
left Holland. They went to England first. 
Some friends joined them. Leaving behind 
the sick and feeble, about one hundred Pil- 
grims set sail. For sixty-three long days the 
frail little vessel was tossed about on the 
stormy ocean. At last it reached land and 
came to anchor in the harbor of Province- 
town, on the tip of Cape Cod. 

Here the Mayflower remained at anchor 
for nearly a month. 

During the first week in December, eighteen 
of the men, led by Captain Miles Standish, 
put off in a sailboat for a trip along the 
coast. At last they found the spot for which 
they were looking. This place is now Plym- 

37 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

outh. The men said it was ^' a lovely spot 
with corn fields and running brooks. '^ Not 
far from the shore was a large spring of pure 
cold water. 

'^ We have found our home at last/' said 
Captain Standish; 'Met us go back and tell 
the good news.'' 

It was on Saturday, a few days before 
Christmas, that the good ship Mayflower 
came to anchor off the Pl3mQouth shore. A 
young girl named Mary Chilton, we are told, 
was allowed to go ashore with the first party 
that left the vessel. As the story runs, she 
'' jumped from the boat to a large rock that 
lay half buried in the sand." 

If you ever go to Pljmiouth, you will wish 
to climb upon the big rock which rests under 
the canopy, close to the shore. This is the 
famous Plymouth Rock on which the young 
Pilgrim girl is said to have stepped. It is 
sometimes called " the stepping stone of 
New England." The date of the landing of 
the Pilgrims was December 21, 1620. It is 

38 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

now known as Forefathers' Day, and is cele- 
brated every year. 

The men went ashore when the weather 
permitted, and began to build log houses. 
The women and children lived on board the 
Mayflower until the rude cabins were ready 
for use. What a hard time they had that first 
winter! The winter was long and cold. The 
rain, snow, and sleet often put an end to all 
work. The men were made sick from ex- 
posure and lack of food. The children were 
frost-bitten. Before spring came, one half 
of the entire colony had died of cold, hunger, 
and exposure. When they were buried, the 
ground was smoothed over their graves, for 
fear the Indians would find out how many 
had died. 

At one time there were only seven people 
in the whole settlement able to wait on the 
sick and bury the dead. Captain Standish 
was brave as a lion, but tender-hearted as a 
child. He nursed the sick, cooked the food, 
and washed the clothing. 

39 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Now Captain Miles was not really a Pil- 
grim. He was a soldier. He came along 
with the Pilgrims to show them how to fight 
the Indians. He was the right man in the 
right place. He soon became the most useful 
man in the colony. The savages soon learned 
to fear him. Some of them called him Boil- 
ing Water, because he was easily made angry. 
Others called him Captain Shrimp, on ac- 
count of his being so little. 

At last the long, sad winter came to an 
end. Bright and early came the spring that 
year. Governor Bradford tells us in his 
Journal that on the third day of March the 
grass was green and the birds were sweetly 
singing in the trees. One day two young 
girls, Elizabeth Tilley and Mary AUerton, 
came home from a walk in the woods. Their 
hands were filled with rose-tinted flowers 
they had picked by the edge of a snowbank. 

^^ God be praised! behold our Mayflowers 
here! '^ said good Elder Brewster. 

Ever since that day the boys and girls, in 
40 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the early spring, have picked Mayflowers 
in the Plj^nouth woods. 

One morning in the middle of April the 
good ship Mayflower was ready to sail back 
to England. With sad faces the men and 
women stood on Burial Hill and said fare- 
well to the httle vessel which had been so 
long their only home. But not one of them 
wanted to give up and go back. Here they 
had come to stay, and stay they did. 

^^ It is not with us/' said Elder Brewster, 
'' as with men whom small things can dis- 
courage.'' 

They had crossed the ocean and made 
homes for themselves where they could Hve 
in peace and worship God as they pleased. 

Thus this little handful of brave and God- 
fearing men and women on the Plymouth 
shore began one of the earliest settlements 
in the history of our country. 



41 



VIII 

THANKSGIVING AT PLYMOUTH 

ONE day in early spring, when the 
Pilgrims were hard at work, an In- 
dian, tall and straight as an arrow, 
walked into the little village of Plymouth. 
As he tramped along the street, he cried, 
'^Welcome, English! Welcome, English!'^ 
The name of the Indian was Samoset. He 
had picked up a few English words from 
fishermen along the coast of Maine. 

The Pilgrims were glad to see this friendly 
savage. They gave him some butter, cheese, 
and padding, and let him stay over night in 
one of the log houses. The next day they 
gave him a jackknife, a bracelet, and a ring, 
and sent him back to his home in the woods. 
In a few days Samoset came again and 
42 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



brought another Indian with him, named 
Squanto, who could speak EngUsh better. 

Well, Squanto came and lived with the 
Pilgrims. He taught them how to do many 
useful things. He showed them how to 
catch the little fishes called alewives and put 
them in the hills of corn to make it grow 
faster. The Pilgrims had been fortunate 
enough to find corn buried in the sand hills 
of Cape Cod, and they had saved it for seed. 
It has been well said that if it had not been 
for this corn and the help of Squanto, the 
colony would probably have starved to death 
during the first year at Plymouth. 

The first summer was warm. There was a 
good deal of rain, and much sunshine. Every- 
body worked hard, and in the autumn there 
was a fine crop of corn. The people were 
happy because they were sure of food for the 
next winter. 

^^ God has been good to us,'' said the 
women; ^^ let us thank him for all these 
blessings." 

43 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'^ True/' said Elder Brewster; " let us take 
one day in which to thank God for all these 
things. Let us ask our Indian friends, who 
have been so kind to us, to share this day of 
thanksgiving with us/' 

One day did not seem long enough. So 
they planned to take a whole week, during 
the month of October. Ninety Indian braves, 
dressed in deerskins, feathers, and foxtails, 
with their faces daubed with red, yellow, and 
white paint, came as guests. With them 
came their chief, the great Massasoit. Round 
his neck he wore a string of bones and a bag 
of tobacco. At his belt he carried a long 
knife. His face was painted red, and his 
hair, as Governor Bradford wrote in his 
Journal, " looked quite greasily." 

Of course it was a task to prepare food 
enough for the settlers and their guests. 
Four of the best marksmen among the Pil- 
grims went into the woods to shoot wild 
turkeys. They killed enough in one day for 
the whole company. Massasoit also sent out 

44 



:?ii5 




CAPTAIN STANDISH PUT ON HIS ARMOR AND PARADED HIS LITTLE 
COMPANY OF TWELVE SOLDIERS. Page 45. 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

some of his men. They killed five deer, 
which they gave their pale-faced friends as 
their share of the feast. At this time there 
were only eleven log houses in the whole 
settlement; and so the Indians had to sleep 
and eat out of doors. They did not mind 
this, for it was a lovely, warm week of Indian 
summer. 

Indeed, it was a fine thanksgiving. On the 
rude table under the trees were roast turkeys, 
deer meat, broiled fish, and baked clams. 
The young Pilgrim girls helped to serve the 
food to the hungry redskins. What a merry 
time everybody had during that thanksgiving 
week! The young men among the Pilgrims 
ran races, played games, and had a shooting 
match. At night the Indians sang and 
danced. Now and then they gave a war 
whoop, which made the woods ring. Every 
morning Captain Standish put on his armor 
and paraded his little company of twelve 
soldiers. Then he fired off the cannon on 
the top of Burial Hill. 

45 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

On the third day Massasoit had to leave 
for home. He smoked the pipe of peace with 
his friends, and taking his presents of glass 
beads and trinkets, he and his braves said 
good-by and began their long tramp through 
the woods. 

On the last days of the thanksgiving party 
Elder Brewster prayed a long prayer and 
preached a long sermon. He gave thanks 
to God for all his mercy and goodness to the 
little Plymouth colony. 

He spoke tenderly of good John Carver, 
their first governor, who had died a few 
months before of worry and overwork. 

Of course he did not forget Rose Standish, 
the lovel}^ young wife of Captain Standish, 
who died of cold and lack of food during the 
winter. 

Many shed tears when the good man spoke 
of the gentle Dorothy Bradford, who fell 
overboard from the Mayflower in Province- 
town harbor and was drowned. 

With tender words he spoke of the many 
46 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

loved ones who died during the long winter 
and were sleeping on Burial Hill. 

Nearly three hundred years have passed 
since the band of Pilgrims had their first 
thanksgiving on the Plymouth shore. Since 
that time Thanksgiving has come to be 
celebrated all over our land as the great 
family festival of the year. It is observed as 
a season of sweet and blessed memories. 



47 



rx 



THE INDIANS, AND HOW THEY LIVED 

WHEN Columbus discovered the New 
World, he thought he had reached 
India, and called the natives In- 
dians. But the savages of America called 
themselves red men. They were a tall, well- 
built race of people. Their color was chest- 
nut-brown. They had black eyes, straight, 
raven-black hair, and high cheek bones. 
Most of them cut their hair close to the head, 
except one tuft called the scalp lock. They 
liked to daub their faces with red, yellow, 
and blue paint. They did this, perhaps, to 
make themselves look ugly and fierce. Round 
their necks they wore strings of shining 
stones and shells, bits of mica, and the teeth 
of animals. 

48 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Indians made their clothes out of the 
skins of the bear, deer, and beaver. Their 
shoes, or moccasins, and their leggings were 
made of deerskin, or other soft leather, 
trimmed with colored beads. They gener- 
ally lived in villages of wigwams. The wig- 
wam was a kind of tent made of birch bark 
or skins, held up by poles meeting at the top. 
There was only one room in the wigwam. 
The brave, his squaw, the children, and the 
dogs slept on the ground, with skins or dried 
grass for beds. In cold weather fire was built 
in the middle of the wigwam. The smoke 
went out through a hole in the top. These 
wigwams were pretty snug and warm even 
in the middle of winter. 

The main task of the Indians was to get 
enough food to eat. They lived chiefly on 
fish and flesh of rabbits, bears, deer, turkeys, 
and other wild game, which they caught, or 
shot with their bows and arrows. They some- 
times tiUed the soil. Besides corn, they raised 
beans, squashes, pumpkins, and tobacco. 

49 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

They were fond of com and beans cooked 
together. This old-time dish is still common 
with us, and is called by its Indian name of 
succotash. Green corn and clams were 
roasted in hot ashes, somewhat as we cook 
them now at picnics. Meat and fish were 
broiled over a fire, on a gridiron of sticks. 

When they wished to make a fire, they 
rubbed two dry sticks together until the 
sticks grew hot enough to kindle leaves or 
moss. They did not let their fire go out, if 
they could help it. 

The only drink used by the red men was 
water. After the white man came, they 
learned to drink rum, which they called fire 
water. From the Indians, on the other 
hand, the settlers learned the use of tobacco. 

The Indians were fond of fighting. Before 
the white men came, they fought with each 
other, and were cruel to their prisoners. 
Their weapons were rude. They fought with 
bow and arrow, with the tomahawk and the 
war club. Their bows were strung with the 

50 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

sinews of the deer. The arrow heads were 
made of flint or other hard stone. The toma- 
hawk was made of a sharp stone fastened to 
a wooden handle. After a time the Indians 
traded the skins of bears, foxes, and other 
animals to the settlers for knives, guns, and 
powder. 

The savages were much puzzled about 
gunpowder. They thought it grew out of the 
ground like tobacco or corn. They believed 
that every paleface knew how to make it. 
It is said that once when the Indians cap- 
tured two young girls, they tried to force 
them to make gunpowder for their tribe. 

Squanto used to scare his savage friends by 
telling them that the Pilgrims kept gun- 
powder, as well as the plague, hid under their 
log cabins. He also told them that if they 
did any harm to his white friends, the gun- 
powder would be let loose and would kill 
every redskin on the coast. 

Instead of money made of gold, silver, or 
copper, the Indians used what they called 

51 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

wampum. This was made of round pieces 
of polished shells strung like beads. Besides 
their use as money, strings of wampum, 
trimmed with colored beads, were worn as 
bracelets and belts. 

An Indian baby was called a papoose. 
It was strapped into a kind of cradle 
made of bark, padded with soft moss. This 
rude bit of a cradle was handy to carry 
round, or lean against a tree or the side of 
the wigwam. Better still, the mother used 
to hang it on the limb of a tree, and let the 
wind rock the baby to sleep. When on a 
march, the Indian mother carried her pap- 
oose in its cradle, strapped to her back. 

The Indians loved outdoor life. They 
lived in the open air except in the coldest 
weather. They hunted and wandered in the 
woods. They fished in the rivers and ponds, 
and paddled their light canoes up and down 
the streams and across the lakes. They 
could follow game or their enemies through 
the thick woods by signs which would not 

52 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

be seen by most white men. They knew the 
meaning of a broken twig, the trace of a foot, 
or a torn bit of moss. 

The school of the Indian boy was the 
woods. He studied the ways and habits of 
bears, wild turkeys, rabbits, and other wood- 
land creatures. While he was still small, he 
learned to imitate the hoot of the owl, the 
cry of the turkey, and the howl of the woK. 
Before he was twelve years old, he could make 
his own bow and arrows, and help make 
canoes. He knew how to shape and use the 
tomahaw^k and the war club. 

The Indians also loved sports and games. 
A famous traveler who knew Indian life tells 
us, in one of his books, that he would ride on 
horseback thirty miles to see an Indian game 
of ball. He said that he had often sat all 
day on his horse to see a match game with 
several hundred players on each side. 

From childhood the Indian was trained to 
endure pain. Boys would put live coals 
under their naked arms to see who would 

53 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

hold out longest. The Indian warrior had 
no equal in power of endurance or capacity 
for suffering. He could travel hundreds of 
miles without food or rest. He would be 
tortured to death without showing a sign 
of pain, while with his last breath he chanted 
his death song. 



54 



X 



KING Philip's war 



MASSASOIT was the best Indian 
friend that the Plymouth people 
ever had. He made a treaty with 
them which lasted more than fifty years. 
This chief had two sons. He wanted them 
to live at peace with his white friends. One 
day he took the boys to Pl3miouth and called 
on Governor Bradford. 

'^ I want my boys to like the English; will 
you please give them English names.'' 

The governor named the older Alexander, 
and the younger Philip. 

Massasoit lived to a great age. On his 
death his son Alexander became chief. 

After a time the governor heard that 
Alexander was trying to stir up the Indians 

55 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to make war on the settlers. He sent for the 
young chief to come to Plymouth and explain 
matters. Alexander came, but on his way 
back he was taken sick and died before he 
could reach home. 

His young wife was furious. She told her 
people that the English had given her hus- 
band poison. This was not true, but most of 
the Indians seemed to think it was. For this 
reason they felt bitter toward the colony. 

Philip now became chief of the Indians 
who lived near Plymouth. He was one of 
the greatest Indian chiefs who ever lived. 
He was shrewd, crafty, and cruel. He called 
himself King Philip. 

Now King Philip hated the English. He 
was sure that they had killed his brother. 
He was eager for revenge. Besides, more 
and more white people were coming every 
year, and he saw that his own people were 
growing weaker. 

An Indian chief once asked a paleface to 
sit on a log with him. Then he kept asking 

56 





0r 



TRUE ENOUGH," REPLIED THE REDSKIN. " THAT IS THE WAY IT 
IS WITH YOU ENGLISH." Page 57. ^ 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

him to move along. Finally they came to 
the end of the log. 

^^ Move on/' said the Indian. 

'^ I can't; I am at the end of the log now." 

'^ True enough/' repHed the redskin. " That 
is the way it is with you English. You keep 
asking us to move on, and then to move on 
again, until we are as far as we can go; and 
now you ask us to move on again." 

Now Massasoit had been the chief over 
the land from Cape Cod to the shore of Nar- 
ragansett Bay. This was a strip about 
thirty miles wide. The Indians did not 
really put the land to much use except for 
hunting and fishing. 

At first the English bought a small piece 
of land. More and more people came over 
from England. They also bought land. 
They paid for it in blankets, glass beads, 
knives, and trinkets. When Massasoit died, 
the white men had nearly all the land of his 
entire tribe. Well might the red men say, 
'' They take our land from us and drive us 

57 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

out/^ Then, too, some of the Enghsh were 
bad and dishonest. They sold the Indians 
strong drink, which made them ugly. They 
cheated them out of furs and skins, which 
they sold at a great price in Europe. 

And so it came about that most of the 
Indians hated the pale-faced strangers. King 
Philip was a proud man. He could not bear 
to see things going on in this way. 

^' If the red men do not drive out the white 
men," he said, ^' the palefaces will drive out 
the red men.'' 

The English did not trust Philip. They 
had good reason to think that he was plan- 
ning to do them harm. Indeed, it was true; 
for he had sent presents to other Indian 
chiefs, saying, ^^ Come and help us drive out 
the whites." 

Now began a cruel and bloodthirsty war. 
It lasted for almost two years. More than a 
thousand log houses were burned, and six 
hundred women and children killed or made 
captives. This war began in 1675, a little 

58 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

over fifty years after the Pilgrims landed at 
Plymouth. 

At first the fighting took place near Plym- 
outh. Soon it spread, like a forest fire, to 
the larger towns along the Connecticut 
River. 

Years before this the Indians had fought 
with bow and arrow, and the tomahawk. 
After a time they traded furs, land, and corn 
for guns and gunpowder. In a short time 
they could load and fire a gun as well as a 
white man. 

The redskins did not fight in the open. 
They hid behind trees, rocks, and bushes, 
where they could shoot the settlers without 
being seen. They could make a noise ex- 
actly hke a wild turkey. This trick would 
often draw a white man into the woods, only 
to be killed by his unseen foe. 

It was the same old story in a hundred 
villages. The savages would creep up in the 
night. They would set fire to the cabins, 
kill or scalp the men, and carry off the women 

59 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY I 

and children to Canada to be traded for gold, | 

rum, or guns. | 

The Indians made an attack on the village i 

of Brookfield in the Old Bay State. They i 
burned everything except the blockhouse. 

To this the women and children had fled. \ 

The savages shot burning arrows into the ! 
roof. But the men tore off the rough shingles 
and put out the fire. Again the Indians crept 

up, and set fire this time under the corner of \ 
the blockhouse. The men rushed out and 

once more saved the building. The savages i 

now found a cart, filled it with hay, set it ■ 
on fire, and pushed it against the house. It 

seemed as if the settlers were to be burned out. | 

All of a sudden it began to grow dark. | 

" God is coming to our help. That big | 

black cloud in the west will surely bring \ 

rain.'' i 

It soon began to rain, and the fire was put ' 

out. A little later some men from a neigh- j 

boring village came to their help and drove 1 

off the redskins. i 

60 I 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

One day a woman was alone in her cabin 
with her two children. She looked up from 
her w^ork and saw an Indian peering in at 
the window. Quick as a flash she put the 
little ones under a big brass kettle. Then 
seizing a shovelful of coals from the fireplace, 
she dashed them into the redskin's face. 
With a yell of pain he ran into the woods. 

The leading man of the settlers was Cap- 
tain Benjamin Church. He was a fearless 
Indian fighter. He knew how to meet the 
savages in their own way. During the winter 
a band of Indians gathered in a log fort in 
Rhode Island. The savages felt safe, for the 
fort was in a swamp and hard to reach. 

Now was the time to strike a hard blow. 
Through the deep snow Captain Church led 
his men into the swamp. It was a long, 
bloody battle, but the fort was at last taken. 
The English set fire to the wigwams and put 
the women and children to death. The 
Indians lost nearly a thousand of their 
people. 

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THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Shortly afterward Captain Church made 
prisoners of King Phihp's wife and little 
son. 

'^ It breaks my heart. Now I^m ready to 
die/^ cried the Indian chief. 

The little boy, the grandson of the great 
Massasoit, and his mother were sold as 
slaves, sent to Bermuda, and there died. 

King Philip was hunted like a wild beast 
from one hiding-place to another. He grew 
more cruel as he fled from swamp to swamp. 
He killed one of his men for wanting to make 
peace with the whites. The brother of the 
Indian ran away and told Captain Church 
where Philip was hid. 

A guard of soldiers was put round the 
swamp. In trying to escape, the chief was 
shot by the very Indian whose brother he 
had slain. The settlers cut off the savage's 
head and carried it to Plymouth, where they 
put it on a pole in a public place. This was 
a cruel thing to do, but it was done to make 
the other Indians afraid. 

62 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The death of King PhiUp put an end to 
the war. The Indians never again dared to 
make a serious attack on the people in this 
region. 



63 



XI 

THE INDIANS ATTACK HAVERHILL 

MORE than two hundred years ago a 
long war took place between Eng- 
land and France. This war began 
in 1702 and lasted for nearly twelve years. 
It was called Queen Anne's War. It was one 
part of the long struggle to see whether Eng- 
land or France was to rule in North America. 
The Indians for the most part took sides 
with the French. The settlers along the 
border lived a life of ever-present peril. 
Bands of savages came down from Canada. 
They attacked the little log-house villages. 
They burned the cabins, killed and scalped 
the men, and carried off the women and 
children to be sold in Canada. Savages 
would hide in the woods for weeks to find a 

64 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

chance to burn some lonely house, and kill 
and scalp the men at work in the fields. 

In the state of Massachusetts there is now 
a rich and thriving city called Haverhill, on 
the Merrimac River. At the time of our 
story it was a Httle village of thirty log houses. 
The Indians used to come down the river in 
their canoes, and kill the settlers. Then 
with prisoners and plunder they would paddle 
upstream and steal out of sight in the deep 
woods of New Hampshire. 

During the summer of 1708 a large band 
of French and Indians set out from Canada 
to attack the settlements along the frontier. 
Among other towns the village of Haverhill 
was to be visited. 

One Sunday morning in August, about 
daylight, a shoemaker by the name of John 
Kezar was walking home from Amesbury. 
When he was almost at Haverhill, he hap- 
pened to look through the underbrush, and 
saw a band of savages marching toward the 
village. 

65 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Indians! Indians! " he shouted when he 
ran to give the alarm. 

He dashed to the green in front of the 
meetinghouse and fired his gun. 

" Indians! Indians! " was soon heard all 
over the frontier village. 

The savages scattered in every direction, 
that they might do their cruel work the more 
quickly. 

The foremost party of the redskins at- 
tacked the house of the minister, Benjamin 
Rolfe. They began to beat down the door 
with their tomahawks. 

The good man jumped from his bed and 
braced himself against the stout oak door. 
There were three soldiers in the house; but 
they were so afraid that they did not use a 
gun or lift a finger to defend the place. 

The Indians fired through the door. One 
of the bullets hit Mr. Rolfe on the elbow. 
The poor man was not able to defend his 
own home any longer. He ran out of the 
back door. The savages caught up with 

66 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

him at the well and killed him with their 
tomahawks. 

Mr. Rolfe had two httle girls, Mary, thir- 
teen years old, and Elizabeth, nine. And 
there was a negro girl, named Hagar. She 
jumped from her bed, and led the two fright- 
ened children into the cellar. She put them 
under big tubs, and then hid herself behind 
the meat barrel. 

Down came the Indians. They stole every- 
thing they could carry away. Several times 
they walked past the tubs that hid the 
children. They even stepped on the foot of 
one of them. They drank milk from the 
pans and hurled them on the cellar floor. 
They took the meat from the barrel behind 
which Hagar was hid. But they saw nobody. 
A nurse named Ann Whittaker lived at Mr. 
Rolfe's at this time. She hid herself in a 
chest under the stairs and also escaped with- 
out harm. 

A family named Hartshorn fared badly. 
Mr. Hartshorn saw the Indians coming toward 

67 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

his house. He and his two sons ran out. All 
three were shot dead in the yard. Mrs. 
Hartshorn, leaving her infant boy asleep in 
the garret, took the rest of the children 
through a trapdoor into the cellar. 

The Indians plundered the house, but did 
not happen to go into the cellar. One big 
savage went up into the garret, took the 
baby boy from his bed, and threw him out 
of the window. The poor thing fell stunned 
but unharmed on a pile of boards. 

Some of the Indians attacked the house of 
Mr. Swan, which stood out in a field. The 
savages tried to break in the front door. 

Mr. Swan was a timid man and told his 
wife to let the savages in. 

'^ Never,'' cried the heroic woman; ^' let 
me try and see what I can do." 

A big redskin placed his back against the 
door, and the others pushed against him. 
Mrs. Swan seized an iron spit, nearly three 
feet long. With all her might she drove it 
through the body of the savage. This was 

68 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

too much. The Indians ran off and did no 
harm to the family. 

A small band of Indians set fire to the 
meetinghouse, one of the largest on the 
frontier. A man named Davis ran behind a 
barn which stood near. He struck the side 
of it long and hard with a big club. 

'^ Come on, men! come on! we'll have 
them yet/' he shouted, as if giving a word 
of command. 

Then the Indians began to shout: ^' The 
English are coming! The English are com- 
ing! " 

Shortly afterward Major Turner, with a 
company of soldiers, came to the help of the 
village. The French and Indians made a 
hasty retreat, taking with them a number 
of prisoners. 

Captain Samuel Ayer, a fearless Indian 
fighter, got together a little band of twenty 
men and went in pursuit. He shortly came 
up with the party, and began fighting, al- 
though against great odds. Another com- 

69 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

pany of settlers soon came to help. The 
Indians were beaten. They retreated toward 
Canada, losing a part of their prisoners and 
leaving some of their own number dead. 

It was a time of sorrow and mourning in 
that httle frontier village. Sixteen men, 
women, and children were killed outright. 
As many more were carried off to Canada as 
prisoners. It was hot weather, and the dead 
were buried the same day in one large grave. 

For many years the people of Haverhill 
suffered hardships from the Indians. That 
terrible August Sunday was long remem- 
bered as the last and worst attack. In the 
old burying ground which overlooks the 
Merrimac stands a granite monument. It 
tells in simple words the story of the fight 
with the Indians and the death of the beloved 
minister and fifteen of his people on that hot 
Sunday so many long years ago. 



70 



XII 

BETTY MERRILL AND THE BIG CLOCK 

MANY years ago a large part of New 
Hampshire was one vast wilderness. 
In this region, on the banks of the 
Connecticut River, there Hved a settler by 
the name of John Merrill, with his good wife, 
Hannah. They had a bright, lively daughter 
named Betty. She was a girl about twelve 
years old. 

Now Betty loved her home. She hked to 
tramp through the deep woods. She made 
friends with the squirrels, the rabbits, the 
robins, and the blue jays. She liked to sit 
on the banks of the river, where she could 
watch the water and look at a big mountain 
in the distance. 

Among other things that Betty hked was 
71 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the tall clock in a corner of the kitchen. Her 
grandfather, who lived in London, had sent 
it as a present to her mother, two years 
before. Often, when Betty was helping her 
mother get supper, she would stand before 
it and watch the long pendulum swing slowly 
to and fro, and listen to its solemn ticking. 

^^ Listen sharp, Betty,'' said her father one 
day, '' and hear what the clock says to you." 

^^ I'm sure I cannot make it out; what 
does it say, father? " 

^^ This is what it says, my girl, ' Be brave, 
Httle girl, be brave, be brave.' " 

Often after this, when Betty was busy at 
work, she would look up now and then at the 
clock and say to herself, " I really believe 
you do say ^ Be brave, my girl, be brave.' " 

At the time of our story, Betty's mother 
had gone down the river to spend a few days 
with a sick neighbor. The little girl was 
keeping house for her father. 

One cold morning, in the midst of a driving 
snowstorm, Mr. Merrill was to go on horse- 

72 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

back to get his wife. Behind him was strapped 
a cushion, or pillion, as it was called, on which 
the good woman would ride. 

^' Hurry back with mother,'' cried Betty^ 
when her father was ready to start. '' It 
will be dark early; and the snow may drift." 

" I'll hurry back, Bett}^, dear; I don't hke 
to leave you alone even for a short time. 
Keep the bar across the door. Have a good 
fire going." 

The father kissed his daughter and rode 
away, following a trail through the woods. 

Betty was busy about the house all the 
morning. She sang as she washed the dishes 
and put them in order. She swept the kitchen 
floor and dusted the two oak settles with 
their high backs and narrow seats. Then 
she drew the spinning wheel near the fire and 
spun some flax. After a time she began to 
get ready for dinner. She pulled out the 
crane and hung on it the big iron kettle half 
filled with succotash. 

The tall clock struck tv/elve. 
73 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'^ Surely it is almost time for father and 
mother to come. The snow must be deep in 
the woods/' 

The clock struck one. No father or mother 
was to be seen. The clock struck two. The 
succotash was done long ago. Betty had 
spread the table with its coarse linen cloth, 
its cups, pewter spoons, and wooden plates. 

There was a small window in the front of 
the cabin. The glass was thick with frost. 
Betty breathed on it, and through the clear 
place looked down the trail. 

'^ There they are. I can see them just 
coming out of the woods.'' 

She took the kettle from the crane, dished 
out the succotash, and put it on the table. 
Again she looked out of the window. In 
another moment she shrank with terror. 
Along the trail were coming two tall Indians. 

'' Oh, what shall I do? Where can I hide? " 

All of a sudden her eyes fell on the clock. 

'^ I know. Perhaps the Indians will not 
think to look inside of it for me." 

74 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

She ran across the kitchen, pulled open the 
door of the clock, unfastened the weights, 
and hid them behind the settle. In another 
moment she stepped into the clock case and 
pulled the door to as tight as she could. 
There was not a moment to spare. One 
Indian was trying to look in at the window. 
The other was pounding away on the door 
with his tomahawk. 

'^ Surely they will break in. I'm glad I'm 
not a big girl. Dear me, I wish father would 
come." 

Just at this time there was an angry bark 
of a dog. Then came the sharp crack of a 
rifle, a scramble, and a rush outside. 

Betty opened the door of the clock a wee 
bit. 

^' That is Johnson's dog Nero; the Indians 
will run off now. Some of the folks are com- 
ing home with father." 

Weak and almost ready to faint, she got 
out of the clock. She lifted the oak bar from 
the door, and fell in a heap on the floor. 

75 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

In rushed her father and mother, Mr. 
Johnson, and his two grown-up sons. Nero 
leaped wildly round the cabin as if chasing 
a whole tribe of savages. He lapped the 
girl's face, and barked. The mother dashed 
cold water into Betty's face and gently rubbed 
her forehead. In a few moments the child 
opened her eyes and found herself in her 
mother's arms. 

'' How is the succotash? " she asked, sit- 
ting up and looking round the cabin. 

^^ It is all right," said her father, as he 
tenderly kissed her. ^' And so are you. I 
suppose those Indians meant no harm. Per- 
haps they were only prowling round to steal 
something. You were a brave little girl, 
and I am proud of you. Dinner is ready. 
Let us sit down and eat; for we are all as 
hungry as bears." 



76 



XIII 

WASHINGTON AS A BOY 

GEORGE WASHINGTON is often 
spoken of as the Father of his Coun- 
try. He is also called the first of 
Americans. His birthday is celebrated from 
one end of our land to the other. Flags fly, 
cannon boom, and from Maine to California 
school children celebrate the day by reciting 
pieces, singing patriotic songs, and listening 
to eloquent speakers. We like to see the 
picture of Washington in our homes, in our 
schools, and in public buildings. Indeed, we 
have come to know this man's face almost as 
well as that of our father or mother. 

George Washington was born in Virginia, 
on February 22, 1732. When he was old 
enough, he went to a little country school 

77 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and learned to read, write, and cipher. Be- 
fore he was twelve, he could write a clear, 
bold hand. Most children do not care to 
keep their copy and exercise books. Those 
of the boy Washington have been kept, and 
even now, after all these years, are easily 
read. 

Among the many good rules and sayings 
which the lad copied in smooth and even 
lines there is one that we should remember: 
^^ Learn to keep alive in your breast that 
little spark of celestial fire called conscience.'' 

Like most other boys, George was not 
always busy about his copy books. He grew 
to be tall, strong, and manly. He was fond 
of outdoor games and sports. We are told 
that he could run faster, jump farther, and 
throw a stone a greater distance than any 
other boy in Virginia. In their school games 
his mates used to pick him out as their leader. 
Just as boys do now, so boys then used to 
play being soldiers. They had cornstalks 
for guns, and swords whittled from pine wood. 

78 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

With cheers these boys used to rush into 
their battles with Captain George as their 
leader. 

During all his life Washington had a quick 
temper, but he learned to keep it under 
control. He was never known to say or do 
a mean thing. He hated a lie. He was 
obedient to his father and mother. 

We all know the story of how he used the 
new hatchet which his father gave him; 
how he tried its keen edge on many things, 
and finally cut down one of his father's finest 
cherry trees; and we know how angry his 
father was. 

^^ I wish I knew who cut down my cherry 
tree. George, do you know who did it? " 

^^ Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut down 
your tree with my new hatchet. I am sorry 
about it." 

^^ George, my boy," and the father took his 
son into his arms, ^^ I had rather lose all my 
cherry trees than have you tell one lie." 

This story of George and the cherry tree 
79 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

may not be true; but it is good enough to 
be true. There is another story, too, worth 
teUing. It seems that when George was a 
lad, his mother owned a colt that had never 
been broken. Nobody about the plantation 
seemed to care to break him. Indeed, they 
were a little afraid of him. 

Early one morning George and some of 
his playmates were out in the pasture. They 
watched the colt running about and kicking 
up his heels. This was too much for George. 

" Help me to get a bridle on him, boys, 
and I will ride him.'' 

After a lively chase they succeeded in 
catching and bridling the frisky animal. The 
next moment George was on his back. 

The colt did not like it. He kicked. He 
almost stood on his head. He plunged about, 
trying to throw the boy off. George hung 
tight to his mane. 

'^ Hang on for your life, George, or he will 
kill you," shouted his companions. 

The fun was getting to be a little bit too 
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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

serious. The boy was perhaps frightened, 
but he would not let go. All of a sudden the 
colt gave a leap into the air and fell over on 
his side dead. He had broken a blood vessel. 

It was a lame and sad boy that trudged 
back to the house with his playmates coming 
slowly along behind. 

^^ Oh, what will mother say? It was her 
pet colt." 

When the boys came to the front porch, 
Mrs. Washington called them in to break- 
fast. 

'' Did you see my sorrel this morning, 
boys? " 

''He is dead, mother; I killed him; " and 
George's eyes filled with tears. 

''Dead! how can that be? He was not 
sick early this morning," said Mrs. Wash- 
ington. 

Then the boy told the whole affair, just as 
it had taken place. 

His mother was both sorry and glad. She 
looked steadily at her young son. 

81 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

^' George, you did wrong; but I am glad 
you told me the truth. I am indeed sorry to 
lose my colt, but the truth from you is worth 
more than everything else. I am glad to 
have a son who speaks the truth/' 



82 



XIV 

WASHINGTON AS A YOUNG MAN 

WHEN Washington was eleven years 
old, his father died. It was now the 
mother who had to look after the 
son. Her first thought was to make him a 
good man. When the lad was fourteen, he 
wanted to go to sea. There was a ship at 
anchor in the Potomac River. George liked 
to talk with the sailors when they came on 
shore. In some way he got a chance to ship 
as a sailor on this vessel. His trunk was 
packed. His mother had given her consent. 
When he went to say good-by to her, he found 
her in tears. 

'^ Oh, George, my dear boy, how can I ever 
let you go to sea? It was more than I could 
bear to lose your dear father/^ 

83 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'^ Mother, I will not go. I will stay with 
you until I grow up/' 

So he gave up his dream of going to sea. 
He went back to school and studied mathe- 
matics and surveying. 

George's older brother, Lawrence, had 
married the daughter of a rich English noble- 
man named Sir Thomas Fairfax, who owned 
thousands of acres of wild land in Virginia. 
When the old gentleman heard that settlers 
were building log cabins on his land without 
his leave, he looked about for somebody to 
survey the property. One day Lawrence 
took his young brother along with him to 
call on Lord Fairfax. The old nobleman 
took a fancy to the sturdy youth. Together 
they hunted and fished through the woods 
and fields of the great estate. Then Sir 
Thomas hired this boy of sixteen to survey 
his lands on the other side of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains. 

Washington, with one friend, set out for 
the wild region. Of course it was a rough, 

84 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

hard life. They had to cross mountains and 
wade through rivers, and slept in the open 
air beside the camp fire. For food they shot 
wild turkeys and deer and caught fish in the 
rivers. They cooked their meat and fish 
on sticks held over the coals of the camp fire. 
They had no plates and dishes except chips 
from hickory trees. Now and then they 
came across bands of Indians. At night, 
when the day's work was done, the two 
friends would watch the savages yell and 
dance to the music of their rude drums. 
This frontier life was a fine training for the 
future soldier. The young man gained cour- 
age and self-control, and learned to endure 
all manner of hardships. 

Lord Fairfax was well pleased with the 
work his young friend had done. Off and 
on, Washington worked three years for the 
old nobleman. Soon after, he was made a 
public surveyor, and for his work received a 
goodly sum every year. 

Now at this time the French had made 
85 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

homes for themselves in Canada. The Eng- 
Ush were hving on a narrow strip of land 
along the coast between the Atlantic Ocean 
and the mountains. Little by little the 
French were building forts and making friends 
with the Indian tribes along the valley of the 
Ohio. This meant, of course, that the Eng- 
lish were to keep out of this part of the 
country. 

" All the land west of the mountains be- 
longs to us/^ the French declared. 

'^ No, the whole country from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific belongs to us/^ was the answer 
of the English. 

The governor of Virginia now decided to 
write a letter to the French on the distant 
frontier, to tell them that the land belonged 
to the English. Who was to carry the letter 
over the mountains and through the thick 
woods? 

'^ Young George Washington is the man 
to do it," said the governor; ^^ he knows the 
Indians and is not afraid of them; I will 

86 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

send him. He is young, but he is the best 
man in Virginia for this trip." 

So with a frontier friend named Gist, a 
few hunters, and an Indian guide, Washing- 
ton set out on a trip of nearly five hundred 
miles to the French forts. After a long, hard 
tramp the little party reached a French out- 
post near Lake Erie. 

^^ We will hold the Ohio in spite of what 
you Enghsh can do," sneered the French 
captain of the outpost. 

Another long tramp was taken to the next 
frontier fort. 

" We are all under orders to keep the Eng- 
lish out of the Ohio Valley," firmly replied 
the French commander when he read the 
governor's letter; '^ and we intend to do 
our duty." 

With his pack on his back and his gun on 
his shoulder, Washington now started to 
make his way back home. It was a slow and 
painful trip. It was late in the season, and 
snow covered the ground. The rivers were 

87 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

full of ice. There were no paths through the 
woods. Indeed, if Gist had not been so skill- 
ful a woodsman, Washington might never 
have reached home again. The Indian guide 
proved a rascal. He begged to carry Wash- 
ington's gun for him, but the young Virginian 
did not trust him. One night when the Uttle 
party was tramping along single file, the 
Indian turned suddenly and fired at Wash- 
ington from behind a tree. It was dark, 
and the bullet missed its mark. Gist wanted 
to kill the Indian, but Washington would not 
allow him to do so. 

On another occasion Washington nearly 
lost his life. He and his friend had reached 
the Allegheny River. It was full of floating 
ice. They worked long and hard to make a 
raft of logs. When they were pushing across 
with a pole, a big cake of ice struck them. 
Washington was thrown into the water. The 
two men at last got ashore on a little island. 
There was no way to build a fire, and they 
had to keep walking all night in their wet 

88 




GIST WANTED TO KILL THE INDIAN. Page 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

clothing. In the early morning they were 
able to get across on the ice. 

After many other hardships and perils 
Washington reached Virginia and told the 
story of his trip. The governor was much 
pleased with what his young friend had done, 
and made him a colonel. It was now Colonel 
Washington. 

At this time Washington was twenty-two 
years old and more than six feet tall. He was 
straight as an arrow and tough as a hickory 
tree. The people of Virginia said he was the 
strongest and bravest young man in the state. 

The governor of Virginia now made ready 
for the war which everybody knew was sure 
to break out. Colonel Washington, with a 
small force, was sent over the mountains to 
build a fort on the Ohio River. This he did 
near the place where the great city of Pitts- 
burg now stands. 

'^ There will be a great city on this spot 
some day/' said Washington to his men. 

The enemy now began to give them trouble. 
89 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Washington had only a few soldiers, while the 
French had a great many. He was wise 
and prudent. He gave up his fort, and was 
allowed to go back to Virginia. 

This was the beginning of a bitter war 
which lasted for nine years. It is known as 
the French and Indian War. When peace 
came, in 1763, France gave up to England 
the whole of Canada with all the vast region 
between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi 
River, except the city of New Orleans. 
Washington had become a hero to the people 
of Virginia. He now married a lady named 
Martha Custis, and went to live at Mount 
Vernon; for his brother Lawrence had died 
and he had fallen heir to the property. At 
this time he was known as one of the richest 
men in the state and also as the ablest and 
bravest soldier in Virginia. 



90 



XV 

LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON 

MOUNT VERNON, the home of 
George Washington, is on the Po- 
tomac River, sixteen miles below 
the capital. This spot was to Washington 
the dearest place on earth. He was sorry to 
leave it. He was always glad to go back to 
it. When the American Revolution was over, 
Washington served his country eight years as 
president, and then retired to Mount Vernon 
to spend his last days. He died here in the 
year 1799. 

Mount Vernon was one of the loveliest and 
finest estates in the country. The entrance 
is in the rear of the mansion, near the old 
gateway used in Washington's time. On the 
left, as you enter the grounds, is the old 

91 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

flower garden. In it may still be seen many 
of the plants and shrubs which were given to 
Washington by some of the noted men of his 
time. The famous Mary Washington rose- 
bush still blooms. It came from France, and 
was named by Washington in honor of his 
mother. 

In front of the great house is a broad lawn, 
which slopes to the banks of the Potomac. 
In the rear are an orchard, the garden, and a 
deer park. At either end of the mansion 
is a long, arched gallery which leads to the 
kitchen and other outbuildings. 

In the old coach house you may still see 
the family carriage. In it Washington and 
his family used to ride eight miles to church. 
It took four horses to draw it over the muddy 
Virginia roads. 

Down the path, a little way to the right 
toward the river, is Washington's tomb. 
Through the iron grating of the door may be 
seen two caskets, hewn from single pieces of 
marble. They hold the remains of General 

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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Washington and his wife. How many fa- 
mous men and women of the world have 
stood with bowed heads before this sacred 
spot! 

Washington's bride was a widow named 
Martha Custis. She brought to Mount Ver- 
non her two children. Washington called 
his stepdaughter Patsy, and his stepson 
Jacky. 

Patsy died when she was seventeen. Jack 
grew up to be a soldier. He died of camp 
fever at the siege of Yorktown, leaving a 
little daughter, Eleanor, only two years old. 
Washington tells us that when he received 
news of Jack's death, he threw himself on his 
camp bed and cried like a child. 

Now Httle Eleanor, or Nellie, as she was 
usually called, was given to Washington to 
bring up as his own child. She was adopted 
'' in full legal form." She became the pride 
and pet of the great man, and hved at 
Mount Vernon until the death of Wash- 
ington. 

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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



When you go to Mount Vernon you may 
see her room as it was furnished when she 
lived there. In one corner is her bed with its 
tall posts and its curtains of cloth called 
dimity. The bed is so high that she had to 
step up three steps to get into it. 

On the first floor at Mount Vernon is the 
music room. In this room is the old-fashioned 
piano which Washington bought in London 
and gave Nellie as a wedding present. The 
lively young girl liked much better to romp 
in the woods and ride the unbroken colts 
than to study music. We are not surprised 
to read that she used to cry when the time 
came to practice her music lessons. 

In this same music room you may see a 
queer guitar which Nellie played when she 
grew older. There is also a flute which 
Washington used to play. 

We are told that the grave and stately man 
Vi^ould unbend a good deal when Nellie 
amused him with her bright chatter and 
sunny smiles. Indeed, this merry girl was 

94 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

said to be the only person who was known 
to make Washington laugh aloud. 

In those days every little girl of a good 
family was taught to work with fancy stitches 
her name and age, the alphabet, and trees 
and houses on a square piece of canvas. This 
was called '' working a sampler/' These 
samplers were often framed and hung up on 
the walls, just like pictures. Some of the 
samplers that Nellie made are still to be seen 
in her room at Mount Vernon 

When Washington was chosen president of 
the new nation, he lived in New York, which 
was then the capital of the country. Nellie 
went along and hved in that city for eight 
years. During this time she saw and talked 
with most of the famous men of our country. 

Nellie Custis grew up to be a sweet and 
lovely lady. She married Washington's 
nephew. Washington gave the young hus- 
band a fine estate near Mount Vernon, but 
as long as Washington lived, Nellie and her 
husband made their home with him. 

95 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Nellie lived to be an old lady. She was 
buried at Mount Vernon. Her tomb is near 
that of Washington. On the marble stone 
you may read how she was ^^ raised under 
the roof of the Father of his Country/' and 
that she ^^ was a fair and lovely woman and 
dearly beloved by all.'' 



96 



XVI 

THE DEFEAT OF GENERAL BRADDOCK 

THE French had made their homes in 
Canada. The English were settled 
along the coast of the Atlantic. At 
the time of our story, the French were com- 
ing south. They built a string of forts and 
trading posts from the Great Lakes down the 
Ohio Valley, and even to the Gulf of Mexico. 
The Allegheny Mountains made a kind of 
natural boundary between the English along 
the coast and the French in the West. 

^' John Cabot and his son sailed along this 
coast years before the French came here; so 
the land belongs to us,'' the EngUsh de- 
clared. 

^^ No," answered the French, *' it belongs 
to us; you must stay between the mountains 
and the ocean." 

97 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Now began the long struggle to decide 
whether the French or the English should be 
masters of America. It is known as the 
French and Indian War. In this, as in other 
wars, the Indians for the most part took sides 
with the French. 

The spot where the city of Pittsburgh now 
stands was the most important point along 
the frontier. It was the main entrance to the 
Ohio Valley. It was long called the Gateway 
of the West. 

^^ Here is a fine place for a fort/' Washing- 
ton had said years before, when he was sent 
to tell the French to leave the Ohio Valley; 
^^ there will be a great city on this spot some 
day.'' 

So the English made haste and began to 
build a fort at this place. But the French 
came along, drove the English off, and fin- 
ished the fort for their own use. 

The next year the king of England sent his 
soldiers to force out the French. General 
Braddock was in command. 

98 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

" Send that young Colonel Washington to 
me/^ were General Braddock^s words when 
he landed in Virginia; '^ I need his help to 
drive the French from the Ohio/^ 

Washington replied, " I will take my rifle- 
men and go with you/^ 

Now General Braddock was a brave sol- 
dier, but he knew nothing about fighting In- 
dians. The savages, as we have already seen, 
do not come out and fight in the open. They 
lurk in the woods, and fire from shelter. 

" We must send out scouts, General Brad- 
dock, ^^ said Washington; '^ the Indians will 
lie hid and will jump out at us when we least 
expect it.'' 

J' Pooh, pooh! '' was the reply of the proud 
British general; " the idea of a boy's telhng 
an old soldier what to do. We shall make 
short work of the Indians." 

So General Braddock and his redcoats set 
out on their long march toward Fort Du- 
quesne. The settlers of Virginia stood in the 
doors of their log cabins to see the fine sol- 

99 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

diers march through the villages. Drums 
were beating, fifes were playing, and banners 
waved in the air. 

In a few days the army plunged into the 
deep woods. There were no roads, only 
bridle paths. The little army marched more 
than four weeks, and was now only eight 
miles from the fort. 

^' The enemy cannot escape us to-morrow, '' 
declared General Braddock. ^' What do you 
say. Colonel Washington? '^ 

^' Perhaps you are right; but we must be 
careful. Between us and the fort is a deep 
valley. The Indians may hide there and 
attack us before we can help ourselves. Let 
me send out my riflemen as scouts. '' 

General Braddock was angry. " Do not 
tell me what to do, young man; I was an 
officer in the king's army long before you 
were born." 

The next day the redcoats were hewing 
their road along a narrow trail. No scouts 
were sent in advance. It was a hot day in 

100 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

July. Not a sound was heard but the ring of 
the ax and the falling of trees. Into a deep, 
narrow valley they were making their way 
without a thought of a hidden enemy. 

All of a sudden, Hke a clap of thunder out 
of a clear sky, rang out the dreadful war 
whoop of the Indians. From behind trees, 
bushes, and rocks the savages shot down the 
Enghsh soldiers. 

The redcoats were veterans. They had 
often fought in wars at home. But for the 
first time they were to meet a foe of another 
kind. They stood in ranks to shoot, but 
there was no enemy in sight. From the 
thick underbrush rang out the rifles amid 
the yells of the enemy. Scores of men were 
shot down Hke sheep, with nothing to be 
seen but puffs of smoke. Those who Uved 
through that afternoon said they could not 
be sure that they had caught sight of a single 
Indian. 

General Braddock did all that a brave man 
could do. Four horses were killed under him. 

101 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

He was soon fatally wounded, and the army 
was in a panic. 

Colonel Washington and his riflemen came 
up from the rear in the nick of time. They 
took to the rocks and bushes and fought the 
Indians in their own way. Washington had 
two horses shot under him. Four bullets 
went through his coat. Years afterward an 
old Indian chief said that in this battle he 
had fired at Washington many times, but 
that the young American brave seemed to 
have a charmed hfe. 

^^ What is to be done now? ^' whispered the 
dying British general. 

'^ We must withdraw at once/^ replied 
Washington. 

The young Virginian and his riflemen held 
the savages back until the British troops 
retired to a safe place. 

It was a terrible defeat. Seven hundred 
English regulars were killed. Before dark all 
that was left of Braddock's army was in full 
retreat. Washington and his men brought 

102 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

up the rear. By their skill and courage they 
had saved the remnant of the British sol- 
diers. 

General Braddock died a few days after. 
He was secretly buried in the trail. Wash- 
ington read the burial service by twilight. 
The soldiers, horses, and wagons, in their 
mad flight, passed over the grave and blotted 
out every sign of the weird burial place. 
This was done at the general's request, to 
prevent the Indians from finding the body. 

The French and Indian War lasted nearly 
eight years. At the end of it the French 
were driven out of the vast territory west of 
the Allegheny Mountains. Even Canada 
was given up to the English. The settlers 
along the coast were soon making their way 
over the mountains to find new homes in the 
region now known as Kentucky and Tennes- 
see. 



103 



XVII 

KING GEORGE TAXES THE COLONIES 

THE French and Indian War was at an 
end. It had cost much money, des- 
troyed the hves of many brave men, 
and brought untold suffering and hardship 
upon thousands of innocent people. And yet 
this war had taught its lesson to our people. 
It had brought the colonies together and 
given them some dim notion of their united 
strength. Thousands of men had been trained 
to the use of arms side by side with the Brit- 
ish regulars. And now that there was peace 
with France, our people felt less need of the 
protection of the mother country. Besides 
all this, the vast region east of the Mississippi 
was left open for the colonists to lay the 
foundation stones of a new nation. 

104 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The European nations that planted colo- 
nies in this country treated them after 
the selfish and narrow notions of the time. 
England also used to make all manner of laws 
to squeeze money out of her colonies. Loss 
in trade fell on us, while the gain went to the 
people across the Atlantic. Twenty-five years 
before the Revolution no less than twenty- 
nine acts of Parliament had been passed for 
this purpose. 

It was a sad day for the British Empire 
when George the Third, a young man of 
twenty-two, came to the throne. He was 
selfish, stubborn, and weak. He hated every- 
body who stood up for the rights of the people. 
He seemed to think that the colonies across 
the sea belonged to him. 

'' My colonies," he said, ^^ must pay their 
share of our war debt and the cost of keeping 
soldiers in America.'' 

^^ No, indeed," cried our people; '^ we can 
take care of ourselves without help of any 
kind." 

105 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

In spite of all their hardships our people 
were thrifty. They built ships, sailed to 
the West Indies, and traded lumber and 
fish for sugar, molasses, and silver dollars. 
They made boots, shoes, hats, glass, salt, 
gunpowder, and many other useful things, 
and sold them across the Atlantic. In New 
England alone five hundred vessels engaged 
in trading along the coast and in foreign 
lands. 

These and many other signs of progress 
stirred the jealousy of the British rulers. 

" This will never do,'' they declared. '^ Our 
colonies in America are getting too rich. The 
French and Spaniards are getting their money. 
We must have it. We must force them to 
trade with us." 

From his youth the queen mother had been 
saying to her son, '' George, be a king." 

So now the dull ruler was eager to show his 
power. He and his short-sighted advisers 
began to pick a quarrel with the colonies. 
Harsh and unjust laws which had been dead 

106 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

for years were now brought to life. A stand- 
ing army was to be kept in America. Our 
merchants were not allowed to send out goods 
to other lands, or bring in any except from 
English colonies. They could not bring in 
sugar or molasses without paying a tax. 
They could buy their hardware only in Eng- 
land. 

It was against the law for us to make goods 
from the wool of our own sheep. A farmer 
could not cut down the trees on his own land 
to make staves and barrels. As for chairs, 
tables, wagons, and so on, the lumber must 
first be shipped to England to be worked up, 
and the finished goods brought back to this 
country. 

Pine trees twelve inches or more in diame- 
ter were marked with what was called the 
king's arrow, which meant that they must be 
saved for the Royal Navy. A man could not 
cut down one of these trees to build his own 
house. And before he could clear his own 
land, he had to pay the king's officer to 

107 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

come and cut the arrow mark on his own 
trees. 

Of course these unwise and unjust laws 
caused a great deal of ill will and hatred 
toward the mother country. If they had been 
strictly enforced, probably the American Rev- 
olution would have broken out several years 
before it did. 

King George now made up his mind to send 
his soldiers to America. To pay for it, he 
planned to make our people pay a direct tax. 
The Stamp Act was passed. By this law we 
were forced to use stamps, not unlike our 
postage stamps, on notes, wills, deeds, and 
even on pamphlets, newspapers, and alma- 
nacs. The cost of a stamp ran from one cent 
to fifty dollars. No document was legal unless 
it was stamped. 

A storm of indignation swept over the land. 
The injustice of the law made the people 
angry. What right, they asked, had the king 
and the British Parliament to force a tax on 
them? " Taxation without representation is 

108 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

tyranny/^ became the watchword of the 
hour. 

One day the Virginia Assembly was in 
session. Washington was there, and Thomas 
Jefferson, then a young law student, stood 
listening at the door. Patrick Henry stoutly 
claimed that Virginia was not bound to obey 
any law which was plainly a menace to the 
common freedom of Englishmen. 

^^ Caesar had his Brutus,'^ said the elo- 
quent and fearless orator; ^^ Charles the First 
his Cromwell, and George the Third — ^^ 

^^ Treason! ^^ shouted the speaker of the 
Assembly; and the cry, " Treason, treason! '' 
rang through the room. 

The intrepid patriot did not flinch. '^ And 
George the Third may profit by their example. 
If that be treason, make the most of it! ^^ 

On the day the Stamp Act became a law, 
funeral bells were tolled, flags were put at 
half mast, and shops were closed. 

The people refused to buy the stamps. 
Packages of them were burned in the streets. 

109 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Boxes of them were seized on vessels and 
thrown into the sea. Stamp officers were 
dragged out of their beds and made to swear 
that they would not sell them. The hated 
stamp tax was done away with after one year. 

King George was now angrier than ever. 
He was not slow to pick a fresh quarrel. 
Laws were passed by Parliament by which 
duties were laid on tea, glass, paper, oil, and 
a few other articles, if brought from foreign 
lands. 

Our people also were more angry than be- 
fore. Thousands declared with Sam Adams 
that they would '^ eat nothing, drink nothing, 
and wear nothing " from England until all 
the duties had been taken off. The shop- 
keepers now found their business going to 
ruin. Ships that came with Enghsh goods 
had to sail back without unloading a single 
article. 

The colonists did not wish to break from 
England. It was only liberty they wanted. 
They came from England, and England they 

no 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

loved. It was their mother country. They 
called themselves Englishmen. They had 
fought for England, and they were willing 
to fight her battles again. 

^' We will buy your goods/' they said. 
'' We will help fight your battles. Give us 
our Hberties. This is all we ask." 

But this the king would not do. He would 
not listen to reason. He thought the colonies 
were weak and would not dare to resist the 
royal power. During all the time of this 
quarrel the king was his own prime minister 
and did things in his own way. His policy 
was to force the colonists from their position; 
for the colonists insisted that they ought not 
to be taxed without having some part in 
making the laws. 

We should keep in mind, however, that 
many of the best people in England did not 
favor this harsh and unwise treatment of the 
colonies in America. 



Ill 



XVIII 

THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION 

THE quarrel between the colonies and 
the mother country grew more and 
more bitter. 
^^ Pay the taxes/' declared King George, 
^^ or I will send my soldiers over and make 
you/' 

'' We will not pay taxes/' rephed the colo- 
nists, '' unless we can have something to say 
about making the laws." 

Two regiments of British soldiers were 
sent to Boston. The people were angry, and 
insulted the redcoats. 

^' What right have these soldiers in Bos- 
ton, anyway? " they asked. 

The boys laughed at the British and called 
them lobster backs. 

112 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

^^ Lobster backs! Kill the lobster backs/' 
shouted the crowd, when the troops paraded 
the streets on Sunday morning. 

In winter the boys used to coast down to 
the frog pond in the Common. They became 
excited when they saw the redcoats going into 
camp close by. The soldiers, as the story 
goes, used to tease the youngsters by spoiling 
their sledding. 

One day, having rebuilt their sHdes, and 
finding, on their return from school, that 
they were again destroyed, several of the 
boys went to the captain and complained. 

The officer made fun of them; and the 
soldiers became more troublesome than 
ever. 

At last a party of some of the larger boys 
waited on General Gage, the commander in 
chief. He asked why so many children had 
called on him. 

'' We come, sir,'' said the tallest boy, '^ to 
demand satisfaction." 

''What," said the general, ''have your 
113 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

fathers been teaching you rebellion, and sent 
you to exhibit it here? " 

^^ Nobody sent us, sir/' replied the boy, 
while his eyes flashed and his cheeks grew 
red; ^^ we have never injured or insulted' 
your troops, but they have spoiled our snow 
slides and broken the ice on our skating 
grounds. We complained, and they called 
us young rebels, and told us to help ourselves 
if we could. We told the captain, and he 
laughed at us. Yesterday our slides were 
destroyed the third time, and we will bear it 
no longer." 

General Gage was a kind-hearted man. 
After gazing on the boys in silent admiration 
for a moment, he turned to an officer by his 
side, and said, ^^ The very children here draw 
in a love of liberty with the air they breathe. 
You may go, my brave boys, and be assured 
that if my soldiers trouble you again, they 
shall be punished." 

One winter day a crowd of Boston school- 
boys pelted one of the hated tax collectors 

114 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

with snowballs and drove him into his house. 
The man opened a window and rashly fired 
a gun at random. A boy named Snider was 
killed. 

A few days later, on the Common, there 
was trouble between the soldiers and some 
rope makers. The redcoats got the worst of 
it. 

One night in March, 1770, some soldiers 
stationed in Boston got into a quarrel with 
the people, and the noise increased until the 
guard was called out. When the regulars 
drew up in line, most of the crowd fell back. 

A few remained and insulted the redcoat 
soldiers, shouting, '^ Lobster backs! Fire if 
you dare, you cowards! You don^t dare to 
fire." 

Captain Preston, the officer in command, 
gave the word, ^^ Fire! " 

The soldiers fired. 

Five men were killed and several wounded. 

There was now intense excitement in Bos- 
ton. The next day the Old South Church was 

115 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

crowded with an angry town meeting. Thou- 
sands filled the streets. The people demanded 
that the troops be removed. 

The governor promised to remove one 
regiment. 

'^ Both regiments or none/' was the an- 
swer. 

Samuel Adams waited on the governor; 
stretching forth his long right arm, and point- 
ing his finger at him, he sternly demanded, in 
the name of three thousand freemen, that 
every British soldier be removed from Boston. 

^^ I observed his knees to tremble,'' said 
the stern patriot in after years, ^^ I saw his 
face grow pale, and I enjoyed the sight." 

Before sunset of the same day the British 
troops were removed from the city and sent 
to an island in the harbor. Not until then 
did the meeting in the Old South Church 
break up. 

The unfortunate act of the soldiers in 
killing the people was the so-called Boston 
Massacre. It did more to mould public 

116 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

opinion than weeks of fine talk could have 
done. It was one step, and an important 
one, toward the final appeal to the bayonet. 

The quarrel did not stop. Three years had 
passed, and King George had taken the tax 
off everything except tea. 

^^ We don't mind the tax of a few cents on 
a pound of tea," said the people; '^ this is 
not the point. You have no right to tax us 
unless we can help to make the laws.'' 

^^ Buy the taxed tea or go without." 

Three of the king's ships landed their tea 
in Charleston, South Carolina, but nobody 
would sell it. It was hid in a damp cellar 
and left to spoil. In vain the royal officers 
tried to land tea in New York and Philadel- 
phia. The shipowners were glad to send 
their unloaded vessels back to England. 

In Boston things took a different turn. 
Warning was several times given to the mas- 
ters of the ships to sail out of the harbor. 
On the last day before the tea must be landed, 
or be prevented from landing, a town meeting 

117 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

was held in the Old South Church. There 
was a crowd in the church, and in the streets. 

The discussion continued until dark, and 
candles were brought in. It was decided that 
the tea should not be landed. 

^' Who knows/ ^ shouted somebody in the 
audience, '^ how tea will mix with salt water? '' 

The church rang with cheers. 

Then up rose Samuel Adams and said, 
'^ This meeting can do nothing more to save 
the country. '^ 

This was the signal. 

A war whoop was heard outside, and forty 
or fifty men, disguised as Indians, went 
quietly aboard the three vessels. Before the 
nine o'clock bell rang, three hundred and 
forty-two chests of tea had been cut open 
and their contents emptied into Boston 
Harbor. 

The next morning there was not a chest of 
taxed tea in Boston, on shipboard or on shore. 
At the same time Paul Revere was riding 
with all haste to Philadelphia to let the good 

118 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

people of that city know that Boston was 
ready to fight for her rights. 

One of the '' Indians '' found a handful of 
tea in his shoe. He saved it and sealed it in 
a bottle. It is still shown as a souvenir of 
this informal '^ tea party '^ in Boston Har- 
bor. 

This was the famous Boston Tea Party. It 
took place in the middle of December, 1773. 
There was not the sHghtest disorder. The 
^' Indians '^ quietly went back to their homes. 
The people of the thirteen colonies showed 
every sign of joy when swift riders carried 
the good news everywhere. 



119 



XIX 



^^ THE MIDNIGHT MESSAGE OF PAUL KEVERE '^ 



** Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; 
Hardly a man is now alive 
Who remembers that famous day and year/' 

GENERAL GAGE was in command of 
the British forces in America. There 
were now about four thousand red- 
coats in Boston. It was plain enough that 
this meant war. 

^^ If we must fight, we will get ready/' 
said the patriots, and formed themselves in- 
to companies. They were ready to march at 
a minute^s notice, and came to be called min- 
utemen. 

General Gage sent his spies far and wide 
120 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to find where the powder and supplies of the 
patriots were kept. On one trip the redcoats 
looted Salem. On another raid they seized 
the powder in the old powder house on Winter 
Hill, in Somerville. 

About this time the patriots began to store 
gunpowder, bullets, and pickaxes, besides a 
goodly amount of food and other supplies, in 
the village of Concord, twenty miles from 
Boston. 

Secret societies were formed in Boston to 
watch the movements of the enemy. Picked 
men walked the streets night and day to 
learn of any sudden or unusual doings of the 
soldiers. Meetings were held to which no- 
body was admitted without having taken 
oath on the Bible not to reveal anything that 
was said or done. 

One of the leaders of the patriots in and 
about Boston was the famous Dr. Joseph 
Warren, who was killed at Bunker Hill. He 
chose Paul Revere as his right-hand man. 
Revere was at this time about forty years old. 

121 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMiERICAN HISTORY 

He was the leader of a band of thirty patriots 
who served as a vigilance committee. They 
were all eyes and ears, but as close-mouthed 
as oysters. 

General Gage now laid his plans to send 
soldiers by night to Concord. He wished to 
destroy the military supplies and capture 
Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were 
known to be in that neighborhood. A Brit- 
ish officer told this to a gunsmith, named 
Jasper, who quickly sent word to Dr. Warren. 
A hostler named Ballard overheard a red- 
coat officer say, ^^ There will be the mischief 
to pay to-morrow." The news was at once 
sent to Paul Revere. This was in the eve- 
ning of the eighteenth of April. 

The patriots now believed that the long- 
expected war was going to begin. The Sons 
of Liberty quickly carried the news to Dr. 
Warren. He sent for William Dawes and 
Paul Revere, and planned for them to ride 
to Lexington to spread the alarm. Paul 
Revere called on his friend Captain Pulling, 

122 



TH^E CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to arrange for a signal from the tower of the 
Old North Church, that he might know what 
direction the British troops were taking. 

'' He said to his friend, ' If the British march 
By land or sea from the town to-night, 
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch 
Of the North Church tower, as a signal light, 
One, if by land, and two, if by sea; 
And I on the opposite shore will be. 
Ready to ride and spread the alarm 
Through every Middlesex village and farm, 
For the country folk to be up and to arm.' " 

Then he said good night and hurried to his 
boat, which lay near the present Craigie 
bridge. 

Two of his friends went to the boat with 
him. Out in the Charles River the British 
man-of-war Somerset lay at anchor. Revere 
was afraid that the noise of the rowing might 
alarm the sentries, and sent one of his com- 
panions to the house of a friend for some- 
thing to muffle the oars. The man quickly 
' came back with a petticoat, which a Daughter 

123 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of Liberty gave him. Revere and his friends 
pushed off from the Boston shore only five 
minutes before General Gage's order went 
forth to allow nobody to leave the town that 
night 

'' Then he said ' Good night, and with muffled oar 
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, 
Just as the moon rose over the bay, 
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay 
The Somerset, British man-of-war; 
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 
Across the moon, like a prison bar, 
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified 
By its own reflection in the tide." 

Late in the night, under cover of the dark- 
ness, eight hundred British regulars went 
quietly to their boats and were rowed across 
the Charles River, which in those days 
widened into a bay extending to the foot of 
the Common. They had acted with great 
secrecy, but they did not escape the vigilance 
of the patriots. Captain Pulling at once 
made for the Old North Church. 

The clocks were striking eleven. 
124 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 
Booted and spurred, with heavy stride 
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. 
Now he patted his horse's side, 
Now gazed at the landscape far and near, 
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, 
And turned and tightened his saddle girth; 
But mostly he watched with eager search. 
The belfry tower of the Old North Church, 
As it rose above the graves on the hill. 
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. 
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height 
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light! 
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, 
But Hngers and gazes, till full on his sight 
A second lamp in the belfry burns." 

Springing into the saddle, he dashed off 
toward Medford. 

'^ Halt! " shouted a sharp voice. 

Two British troopers were standing guard 
under a tree in a narrow part of the road. 

Revere wheeled his horse in the nick of 
time and made his escape into a road which 
ran over Winter Hill. 

'' The regulars are coming. The regulars 
are coming," he shouted as he galloped 

125 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

down the long hill into Medford. He stopped 
long enough to wake up Captain Hall, com- 
mander of the minutemen. 

^^ Up and arm! The regulars are coming," 
and the rider galloped swift as the wind along 
the road to Arlington Centre. At the old 
Cooper tavern he turned off toward Lexing- 
ton. 

" The regulars are coming. Up and arm! " 

Men, women, and children awoke out of 

their sleep and rushed to the doors only to 

catch a glimpse of a horse and rider as they 

vanished out of sight along the dark road. 

" A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark. 
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark 
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet; 
That was all. And yet, through the gloom and the 

light, 
The fate of a nation was riding that night ; 
And the spark struck out by that steed in his flight 
Kindled the land into flame with its heat." 

Shortly after midnight Revere reached 
Lexington and dashed to the house of the 

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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Rev. Jonas Clark, where Samuel Adams and 
John Hancock were sleeping. Eight men, 
under the command of Sergeant Munroe, 
were on guard. 

^^ Don't make so much noise/' said Mun- 
roe; ^^ everybody is sound asleep." 

'' Noise? " shouted Revere; '' you'll have 
noise enough before long. The British 
regulars are coming. I must see Mr. Han- 
cock." 

An upper window was raised. 

^^ Never mind, Revere, come in. We are 
not afraid of you," said the great man, who 
was now wide awake. 

Half an hour later Dawes arrived from his 
longer ride through Roxbury and other towns. 
The two tired riders were given something to 
eat, after which they started toward Concord 
to spread the alarm. About two miles be- 
yond Lexington they were captured by Brit- 
ish officers who were on guard in the woods. 
Both managed to escape. Revere- reached 
Lexington on foot about the time the first 

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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

volley was fired at daybreak on Lexington 
Common. 

The news from Boston spread like wildfire. 
Guns were fired, and church bells rang out 
the alarm. Men and boys loaded their guns, 
put on their powderhorns, filled their pockets 
with bullets, and marched hurriedly along 
the country roads toward Lexington. 

Before nine o'clock hundreds of minute- 
men, even as far away as forty miles out of 
Boston, were on their way to cut off the 
British regulars that dreadful nineteenth of 
April, 1775. 



" You know the rest. In the books you have read 
How the British regulars fired and fled, 
How the farmers gave them ball for ball, 
From behind each fence and farmyard wall, 
Chasing the redcoats down the lane, 
Then crossing the fields to emerge again 
Under the trees at the turn of the road, 
And only pausing to fire and load. 



The copyrighted verse in this chapter is used by arrangement 
with Houghton Mifflin Company. 

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THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' So through the night rode Paul Revere; 

And so through the night went his cry of alarm 

To every Middlesex village and farm, 

A cry of defiance and not of fear, 

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 

And a word that shall echo for evermore. 

'^ For, borne on the night- wind of the Past^ 
Through all our history, to the last, 
In the hour of darkness and peril and need, 
The people will waken and listen to hear 
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed. 
And the midnight message of Paul Revere." 



129 



XX 

JOHN SEVIER, AND HOW HE FOUND HIS WIFE 



SOME years before the Revolution the 
people began to go from Virginia and 
North Carolina into what is now the 
eastern part of Tennessee. This region was a 
great forest-clad valley bounded on one side 
by the Cumberland River and on the other 
by the Great Smoky and other mountains. 

Now the great war trails used by the north- 
ern and southern tribes of Indians passed 
through this country. So we can well see 
how eager the savages were to attack the 
pioneers who went there to make their homes. 
Whatever else the settlers lacked, there 
was one thing of which there was enough 
and to spare. And that was land. For a 
mere song everybody could have all he 

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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

wanted. If the land belonged to an Indian, 
it could often be obtained for a few glass 
trinkets or a bottle of rum. But the pioneers 
of the Tennessee region had to face dangers 
and hardships without number. 

At times they liked to get out of the dull, 
narrow ways of daily living; and so they 
had fiddling and dancing, and horse-racing. 
Corn huskings, house raisings, weddings, and 
the like would be attended and enjoyed by a 
whole settlement. 

As soon as the little settlements began to 
grow, preachers came and cast their lot with 
these frontier people. Log meetinghouses 
were built here and there. On week days the 
preacher worked in the field with his people. 
On Sundays, when they went to church, the 
men took their rifles, and the preacher had 
his rifle standing beside the pulpit. In many 
a fight with the Indians he showed that he 
could shoot as well as preach long sermons. 

Among the pioneers who lived along the 
Watauga River two stood head and shoulders 

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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

above the rest. These two men, not yet 
thirty years old, were James Robertson and 
John Sevier. Robertson could not read or 
write when he was married. His good wife, 
however, taught him his letters and how to 
sign his name. He was a mighty hunter, a 
fearless Indian fighter, and a born leader of 
men. For the next thirty years these two 
men played the chief part in the history of 
the region which grew into the state of Ten- 
nessee. 

Our story, however, has to do with John 
Sevier. He was a gentleman by birth, the 
son of a Frenchman who had settled in Vir- 
ginia. He received a fine education. During 
his life he corresponded with Benjamin Frank- 
lin, James Madison, and other great men of 
his time. Sevier was tall and slender, fair- 
skinned, and blue-eyed, but with the look of 
one born to comm-and. He was dearly loved 
by the frontier people for his unselfish deeds 
and his bravery and skill as a soldier. 

Now Sevier began life as an Indian trader, 
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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

but soon became known as the most fearless 
Indian fighter of his time. He was never so 
much at ease as in a skirmish with the sav- 
ages. By his quick marches through the 
thick woods he struck terror to their hearts. 

Sevier was known far and wide as Chucky 
Jack, because he hved in a log house on the 
NoHchucky River. Here he kept open house 
to everybody. The settlers felt free to help 
themselves to his venison, bear meat, fowl, 
cider, applejack, and hominy. When there 
was a wedding or any other kind of merry- 
making, he used to roast an ox and feed the 
whole settlement, with his tables spread 
under the trees. 

When Colonel Shelby rode posthaste to 
Sevier's house just before the battle of King's 
Mountain, he found Sevier and his people 
roasting an ox. After the feast and a horse- 
race Sevier and his merrymakers went over 
the mountains on their wiry little horses and 
fought like heroes in winning the most de- 
cisive battle of the Revolution. 

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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

In the summer of 1776 a terrible war with 
the Cherokee Indians broke out. At this 
time there were about six hundred people in 
the Watauga settlement. A friendly squaw 
named Nancy Ward gave warning of the 
approach of the savages. The settlers took to 
the log forts. The most important of these 
was at Watauga. Sevier and Robertson were 
in command. The stockade was crowded 
with women and children, but there were 
only about fifty fighting men. 

At sunrise one hot July morning an old 
Cherokee chief, named Abraham, and his 
braves crept through the underbrush and 
with war whoops ran toward the stockade. 

Bang! bang! bang! cracked the rifles from 
the loopholes of the fort. The deadly fire 
of the pioneers drove the Indians back into 
the woods; but the savages kept up a siege 
for over three weeks, until some riflemen 
from a neighboring fort came to the rescue 
and drove them off. 

While the Indians were lurking about, the 
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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

people were getting tired of being shut up 
SO close, for the da3^s were long, and the 
weather was hot. Heedless of danger, the 
women and children would now and then 
run out into the woods. One poor boy was 
captured, carried off, and burnt at the stake. 
A woman was captured outside the stockade, 
but Nancy Ward saved her life. 

One day during the siege the women found 
one of their number missing. 

^^ Where is Catherine Sherrill? '^ cried 
somebody; '' I have not seen her since sun- 
rise.'^ 

^' Does anybody know where Kate is? '^ 
cried her father, as he stood, rifle in hand, at 
a loophole. 

The women and children looked for the 
girl, but no Kate could be found. 

" I heard her say last night," said one 
young woman, " that she was tired of being 
penned up in the fort, and was going out into 
the woods to pick wild flowers." 

'' Oh, dear! " cried the girl's mother; " the 
135 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Indians have captured her by this time. Oh, 
what shall I do? " 

^^ Look, James! Who is that running so 
fast? '^ said Sevier to Robertson, both of 
whom were keeping a sharp lookout for the 
redskins. 

''Bless my eyes! That is Kate Sherrill, 
our missing girl.'' 

Running toward the fort was the girl with 
half a dozen yelling Indians close to her, but 
between her and the big oak gate. She ran 
toward another part of the stockade. Sevier 
at once hurried in that direction. With a 
leap the girl caught the top of the pickets, 
drew herself up, and the next moment 
tumbled, out of breath, into the arms of the 
pioneer. 

The bold Indian fighter could not resist 
the charms of the lovely girl, nor could she 
forget the face of the finest-looking young 
man in Tennessee, who had saved her from 
a bad fall. At all events, three years later 
she became his wife. 

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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

^' I would take a leap like that every day/' 
said Catherine in her old age, '' to fall into 
the arms of a man like John Sevier." 

After getting the better of the Indians in 
more than thirty fights, John Sevier lived 
for many years. When Tennessee was ad- 
mitted into the Union, he was elected its first 
governor. Afterwards he was sent to Wash- 
ington as a member of Congress. 

One sentence on his monument at Nash- 
ville tells the story of his li-f e : 

" He served his country faithfully for forty 
years, and in that service died." 



137 



XXI 

FRONTIER LIFE IN INDIANA 

MORE than one hundred years ago a 
goodly slice of what was known as 
the Northwest Territory was set 
apart as the territory of Indiana. General 
Harrison, the famous Indian fighter, and 
afterward the ninth president of the United 
States, was appointed governor. 

Shortly after General Harrison came to 
Indiana to take charge of affairs, a new and 
strange trouble with the Indians began. A 
certain Shawnee Indian named Loud Voice 
called himself a prophet. He said the Great 
Spirit would protect him, so that he could not 
be killed. Soon a band of outcast savages 
looked on him as a great chief. 

^^ Do what I tell you to do,'' he said to 
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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

them, " and no white man's bullet will ever 
do you harm. You will win in every battle 
and drive the palefaces away from our land." 

Now the prophet vvas only the tool of his 
brother, the famous Tecumseh, one of the 
greatest Indians that ever lived. At this 
time Tecumseh was planning to unite the 
Indians of this region in a general war against 
the pioneers, and the story of the prophet 
spread like wildfire from one tribe to another. 
Hundreds of the redskins beheved that he 
could make them bullet-proof, shield them 
from wounds and death, and make them win 
in battle. 

For several years they prepared for war; 
but General Harrison defeated them in the 
famous battle of Tippecanoe. 

Two years afterward the brave Tecumseh 
was killed in the battle of the Thames. As 
for the prophet, he was never heard of after 
the death of his famous brother. 

During the years of cruel wars with the 
Indians, the pioneers in the deep woods and 

139 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

on the broad prairies of Indiana lived in 
dread night and day. By hard toil the lonely 
settler would clear a few acres to raise corn, 
potatoes, and other things for his family. 
When he went to work in the field, he kept 
his rifle on the ground near him, while in his 
belt he carried pistols and a long knife. 

At night a dog was on guard in the cabin, 
while another lay outside. If the dog out- 
doors barked, the dog inside did the same and 
so woke up the family. The cabin had port- 
holes, so that the settler could fire his gun 
from inside with little or no risk of expo- 
sure. 

Both men and women were trained to the 
use of guns from their childhood. A boy of 
twelve received a rifle and became a soldier 
in the stockade. A loophole was given him 
from which he was to shoot when the savages 
came. 

The pistols and guns of those days were 
single-barreled and loaded at the muzzle. 
They were clumsy affairs, with small bore 

140 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

and flintlock. Often the flint would not 
strike fire and the lock had to be snapped 
several times. The rifles were heavy, with a 
long barrel and a short stock. But in the 
hands of a sturdy pioneer this clumsy weapon 
was deadly, and the Indians had a great dread 
of it. 

In one of the stockades along the Indian 
frontier, a pioneer tells us, were gathered a 
hundred people who had fled there for ref- 
uge. After a long and hard siege the fight- 
ing force was reduced to three men. For 
three weeks they slept in their clothes. No 
household work was done. Food was cooked 
and put where those who were hungry could 
help themselves. 

After the fight was over, this pioneer, who 
was then a boy, went, with an armed escort 
of twenty men, to the nearest settlement to 
prove his father's will. The father had been 
killed by the Indians a iew months before. 
Twenty-three widows were at the log court- 
house to look after the property of their 

141 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

husbands, all of whom had been killed by 
the savages within a year. 

The early settlers of Indiana had to fight 
other pests than the Indians. The wolves, 
foxes, and lynxes killed and ate their sheep, 
lambs, and pigs. The squirrels and rac- 
coons laid waste their cornfields. Then 
there were the rattlesnakes and the copper- 
heads. 

Besides all these was the suffering from 
chills and fever. Almost every family in the 
region suffered from some form of ague, now 
commonly known as malaria. Very few 
pioneers could spare the time to quit work 
and go to bed when stricken with this disease. 
The sturdy backwoodsman plowed his land, 
and the good wife cooked the meals over the 
open fire, shaking with chills or burning with 
fever. Indeed, these people came to regard 
an attack of ague as a matter of course, and 
often made grim jokes about it. 

The story is told of a young man who went 
out one day in search of a cow. He found 

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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

one of his neighbors sitting on a log in the 
woods with his rifle across his knees. 

^' Hello, Jim, what on earth are you doing 
here? '' 

^' I am waiting for my chill to go off, so I 
can shoot the gray squirrel on that tree,'' re- 
plied the victim; and he pointed with sha- 
king fingers to a bushy tail on the topmost 
branch of an oak. 

As the story goes, the young fellow took 
the sick man's rifle and shot the squirrel for 
him. 

Such were the men and women who laid 
the foundation stones of our great states in 
what was then the West. There is nothing 
in romance more interesting or instructive 
than the story of the life of our forefathers. 



143 



XXII 

HOW GOLD WAS FOUND IN CALIFORNIA 

HURRAH, boys! I really believe I 
have found gold. Just take a look 
at the yellow stuff I have here/^ 
^' Say, boss, what's the matter with you 
anyway? Are you crazy? '' 

" Not at all. Let me show you. We are 
in luck this time." 

" Don't tell us any more of your fairy 
stories. You are out of your head from think- 
ing too much of your old sawmill. No such 
luck for us poor fellows." 

This conversation took place in the year 
1849. A dozen or more men were building a 
sawmill in California. It was on a branch 
of the American River, about forty miles 
from what is now Sacramento. The day's 

144 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

work was done, and the men were sitting 
round the open fire in the log shanty in which 
they slept. They took the subject of the 
gold mine as a joke. After poking a little 
fun at their companion, they shpped off to 
bed and thought no more about it. 

A few years before this a Swiss, known as 
Captain Sutter, had received a large tract 
of land in what is now California. At this 
time the region belonged to Mexico. Mr. 
Sutter soon became a rich man. He had 
hundreds of cattle, sheep, horses, and mules. 
He even had a company of soldiers to guard 
a fort which he built near the junction of the 
American and Sacramento rivers. 

Captain Sutter v/as in need of lumber with 
which to build houses and to fence his farms. 
So he sent one of his men, by the name of 
Marshall, with carpenters to build a sawmill 
on the American River. 

Mr. Marshall built the mill and then dug a 
mill race to carry the water to run it. 

One day he was walking along the mill race 
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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

after the water had been shut off. In a heap 
of gravel and sand at the end of it he saw some 
dull yellow specks. He picked up a few 
handfuls of the stuff, washed the dirt out of 
it, and carried it to the cabin. He then 
put it on a rock and hammered it. The 
specks did not break, but changed their 
shape. 

^' These specks are gold,^' said Marshall to 
himself. " I must tell the boys about it, and 
to-morrow I'll go down to the fort and show 
Captain Sutter what I have found. How 
astonished he will be! " 

Early the next day Mr. Marshall started 
for Fort Sutter. 

" I must see you alone," he said to his 
employer; " I have something to show you. 
Please lock the door." 

Marshall then took a little packet from his 
pocket and spread the shining dust on the 
table. 

^^ There, Captain Sutter! Surely that is 
gold, although the boys at the mill said I 

146 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

was crazy. What do you think? I found 
it in the mill race.'' 

Captain Sutter knew the tests for gold, for 
he had been a miner. The glittering dust 
stood the test. 

The captain was not pleased. He said that 
a mob of men would dig up his land and lay 
waste his wheat fields in their mad rush for 
gold. The two men tried their best to keep 
matters a secret. It could not be done. It 
would have been about as easy to keep the 
wind from blowing. 

'^ Gold! Gold!" cried one poor fellow, 
holding up a bottle full of gold dust, and 
running like a madman through the streets 
of San Francisco. " Gold! Gold! from the 
American River." 

Then began a wild rush for this region. 
Men from far and near left their homes, their 
shops, their pulpits, in the mad chase after 
riches. Some tramped overland across the 
plains and over the mountains. Others 
sailed round Cape Horn, or went by the way 

147 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

of Panama. Thousands endured all manner 
of hardships to reach the land where riches 
might be dug out of the earth. Many sold 
all they had to get money to buy mining 
tools and food until they could find gold. 
The moment a ship dropped anchor in the 
harbor of San Francisco, the sailors ran 
away to the mines. Vessels were even 
hauled up on the mud flats and made into 
houses. 

During the next year more than a hundred 
thousand gold hunters from every part of 
the world hurried to California. No such 
tidal wave of people to any section of our 
country had ever been known before. Gold 
had indeed been found. So rich was the 
sand along some of the rivers that the first 
miners made a thousand dollars a day, even 
with the crudest of tools. It is said that 
within five years gold was found to the value 
of several hundred millions of dollars. 

The wonderful stories of lucky strikes read 
more hke fairy tales than the plain truth. 

148 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

One day a miner stopped to drink at a road- 
side spring and found at his feet a nugget 
of gold that weighed twenty pounds. An- 
other man while tramping along a well- 
known trail found a fifty-pound nugget. A 
poor fellow was driving his mule through the 
street; his wheel struck a stone; he jumped 
down to roll it out of the way, and found a 
nugget of gold worth hundreds of dollars. 
Another man happened to turn a rock over 
and found beneath it enough gold dust to 
fill his hat. 

Some of the gravel banks along the rivers 
were rich in the metal. One place was called 
Tin Cup because a cupful of gold could be 
picked up every day for weeks at a time. 
One panful of earth from the Feather River 
was sold for fifteen hundred dollars. 

A miner sweeping his shanty saw specks 
of gold glittering in the earth floor, and dis- 
covered rich diggings right under his feet. 
Thereupon the neighboring miners dug up 
their floors. One man, it is said, found 

149 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

twenty thousand dollars' worth of the metal 
inside his cabin. 

For a long time gold dust was used in a 
crude sort of way as money. What could be 
pinched between the thumb and finger passed 
among the shopkeepers for a dollar. A tea- 
spoonful of the precious stuff was worth six- 
teen dollars. 

Of course all these thousands of gold hunt- 
ers had to have something to eat. Food of 
all kinds was scarce and high. Eggs cost 
ten dollars a dozen. Milk was a dollar a pint. 
Potatoes cost fifty cents each. A dish of 
pork and beans was served up for a dollar 
and a half at some shanty called a hotel. 
Men who had been prosperous at home were 
glad to cook their own food. 

It was a rough life, full of danger, hardship, 
and suffering. A few became rich and re- 
turned home in safety, tlundreds of others 
died from exposure and sickness. 

The gold these men took from the earth 
made CaUfornia famous the world over. But 

150 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

rich as the state is in the gold dug out of its 
soil, its real wealth lies in its fields of grain, 
in its sheep and cattle, in its vineyards, in its 
orange plantations, and above all else in the 
enterprise and industry of its people. 



151 



XXIII 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

LINCOLN was born February 12, 1809, 
in a little log cabin in the backwoods 
of Kentucky. He was named Abra- 
ham for his grandfather, who had been killed 
by the Indians many years before. 

The boy's mother was beautiful, gentle, 
and refined. She was known as the neatest 
housekeeper in that region. She was of deep 
rehgious feeling, and devoted to her family. 
She could use the ax and the hoe, as well as 
the spinning wheel. She was a good shot 
with the rifle, and could not only kill wild 
game, but dress the skins and make clothes 
of them. 

In cold and stormy weather the good mother 
used to read stories from the Bible to her 

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THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

little boy. While he was still a mere slip of 
a child, she taught him to read the stories for 
himself. 

When Abe was seven years old, the family 
moved to Indiana. It was less than one 
hundred miles from the old to the new home. 
Yet it was a long and hard trip. There were 
only a few roads. Often the little party had 
to cut a path for themselves through the 
thick underbrush. 

In Indiana they lived in a log shanty of the 
poorest sort. It had only three sides, one 
side being open to the weather. Such a cabin 
was known as a half -faced camp. There was 
no door or window, not even a floor or a 
chimney. In winter a buiTalo skin was hung 
up to keep out the cold. 

The young boy slept in a Httle loft above 
the main room. There was no stairway. 
Wooden pegs driven into the logs served as 
stairs to chmb to his sleeping place. His bed 
was a pile of dry leaves in a corner. 

As for the clothes that the boy wore, they 
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THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

were of the plainest kind. His cap for winter 
was coonskin. In summer he had a straw hat 
without a band. He wore deerskin breeches, 
held up by one suspender. His shirt was 
deerskin or homespun. He did not have 
stockings. His shoes were cowhide or mocca- 
sins. About half the year he went bare- 
foot. 

No wonder that Lincoln used to say in 
after years, in speaking of his boyhood days 
in Indiana, '' Those were pretty pinching 
times." 

After a while Mr. Lincoln and his boy went 
to work and built a new and better log cabin. 
There was one room below and a loft above, 
and a door hung at the doorway. They had 
a table hewn out of a log, with four stout 
sticks for legs. For chairs they had three- 
legged stools. 

With the rough outdoor life young Abe 
grew to be a tall, strong young man. He 
could drive a span of horses, handle a plow 
or sickle, thresh wheat v/ith a flail, chop down 

154 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

trees, and clear a field for planting corn. To 
get a little money, he would sometimes hire 
out to work for the neighbors. 

Shortly after their moving to Indiana, Mrs. 
Lincoln's health began to fail from the hard- 
ships of pioneer life. She took to her bed 
and soon after died. She was buried under a 
big sycamore tree not far from her home. It 
was Abe's first and greatest sorrow. He 
dearly loved his mother. Years afterward, 
when he became famous, he once said to a 
friend, with tears in his eyes, '^ All that I am 
and ever hope to be, I owe to my angel 
mother." 

Not long after this the people in the little 
pioneer settlement made up their minds to 
have a school. First they must have a school- 
house. The men met, cut down trees, and 
built a log cabin. A huge stone fireplace 
i filled one side of the room. There was no 
floor except the hard dirt, and only one win- 
dow. Instead of glass, strips of oiled paper 
were pasted across the opening. School desks 

155 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

were not then known. Rough logs spht in 
halves served as seats. 

School continued only for a few weeks, in 
the winter, when there was Uttle or no work 
for the boys at home. Study began at sun- 
rise and closed at sunset, and Lincoln had to 
walk a mile and a half each way. 

Young Abe went to this school for two or 
three terms. All his school days put to- 
gether would not make more than a year. 
Well might he say, as he said when president, 
that he went to school ^' by littles.'^ 

Meanwhile he was learning in another way. 
This was his own school of hard work, self- 
denial, and the use of every spare moment. 
He had from his mother a desire for good 
books. We may be sure that books of any 
sort were hard to find on the frontier. What 
few the lad could get he read until he knew 
them by heart. 

^' He read everything he could lay his hands 
on,'' said his stepmother. 

Abe read and reread the Bible, ^Esop's 
156 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Fables/' and Bunyan's '' Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress " until he could repeat whole pages from 
them. During the dreadful days of the war 
the sad-faced president would free his mind 
from worry by repeating from memory whole 
chapters from Isaiah and the New Testa- 
ment. 

Once a neighbor named Crawford lent the 
boy Weems's ^^ Life of Washington/' a popu- 
lar and readable book of that time. Abe 
read the book in his loft, by the light of a 
tallow candle. Having no bookcase, he used 
to put the book between two logs of the 
cabin. One night there came a storm, and 
the book was wet through. Early the next 
morning the boy carried it back to the 
owner. 

^^ Mr. Crawford, your book is ruined. I 
have no money, but I will work for you until 
I have paid for it." 

'' Well, Abe, you are an honest lad. I'll 
be eas}^ with you. Come over and husk corn 
for three days and the book is yours." 

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THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

And so the boy helped the farmer for three 
days and became the owner of the prized 
book. In his droll way Lincoln used to tell 
how he would be plowing and then sit on the 
rail fence and read this book while the horses 
were resting. From this time Washington 
was his ideal hero, the one great man whom 
he admired all his life. 

Like so many other boys, Abe liked to do 
sums in arithmetic. He used the back of a 
wooden fire shovel for a slate, and a burnt 
stick of wood for a pencil. In this rude way 
he learned to do sums by the light of the fire- 
place. When the shovel was full of figures, 
he scraped it to erase the work. 

One day two men came along and asked 
to be rowed to a flatboat in the Ohio River. 
The boy did the rowing. Each man threw 
him a silver half dollar. Never before had 
he possessed so much money at one time. In 
speaking of this incident Lincoln said, " I 
could scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had 
earned a dollar in less than a day. I was a 

158 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that 
time/' 

When Lincoln was about nineteen years 
old, he took his first trip into the world. A 
neighbor hired him to go with his son to carry 
produce on a fiatboat down the Mississippi 
to New Orleans, more than eighteen hundred 
miles away. In that distant Southern city 
he saw new sights and had new experiences. 

In the spring of 1830 the family, with some 
relatives, moved from Indiana to Illinois, 
and settled near the town of Decatur. 

Abe was now past twenty-one years of age, 
and decided to begin life on his own account. 
He was six feet four inches tall and as strong 
as a young giant. It was said that he could 
carry as much as three ordinary men. Some 
of his feats are almost beyond belief. 

He began for himself as a farm hand, work- 
ing for different people. He chopped wood, 
split rails, or did whatever was to be done. 
Needing a suit of clothes, he agreed with a 
Mrs. Miller to split four hundred fence rails 

159 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to pay her for each 3^ard of brown homespun, 
which was to be richly dyed with walnut 
bark. 

Unlike most young men of his time, Lin- 
coln was free from bad habits. He did not 
use strong drink. Nor was he known to speak 
a profane word. At the same time there was 
no cant about him. All his life long he was 
noted for his droll stories, his wit, and his 
practical jokes; but he never forgot what he 
had learned from his mother in his early 
years: to love truth, to be honest and up- 
right in his dealings with men, and to rever- 
ence God. 

Many stories have been told to show how 
honest he was. From his boyhood to the day 
of his death he was known to the plain people 
of the country as Honest Abe Lincoln, or, 
for short. Honest Abe. Indeed, these words 
have been woven into American speech for 
all that is just and honest in man. 

When Lincoln was clerking in a store, he 
discovered one morning that he had given a 

160 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

woman four ounces of tea less than was due 
her. He weighed out the balance and carried 
it to her without waiting for his breakfast. At 
another time^ in making up his accounts, he 
found that he had charged a man six and a 
fourth cents too much. He closed the store 
and tramped some six miles out of the village 
to return the money. 

Lincoln was too fond of study to keep a 
village store for his life work. At one time 
he was postmaster and carried round the 
letters in his hat. Then he studied survey- 
ing, and with the money he earned he be- 
gan to study law. Soon the tall, homely 
young lawyer, with his droll stories and his 
ready wit, became known throughout the 
region for his honesty and his knowledge of 
law. 

At twenty-five he was elected to the legis- 
lature. He bought a new suit of homespun, 
and then, being too poor to ride, tramped a 
hundred miles to the state capital. Twelve 
years later the people sent him to Washing- 

161 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

ton as a member of Congress. He soon came 
to the front as an orator and debater. 

In the critical period of 1860, when a new 
president of the United States was to be 
elected, the choice of the people was for 
^^ Honest Abe/' ^^ the rail splitter of Illi- 
nois." Shortly after his election, the terrible 
war for the Union broke out. 

Lincoln showed himself a great, wise, and 
patient leader in the deadly conflict that 
followed. The deep and abiding faith that 
the plain people had in him was touching and 
matchless. In 1865, when serving his second 
term as president, he lost his life from the 
bullet of an assassin. The whole nation 
mourned his death. 



162 



XXIV 

LINCOLN AND THE SLEEPING SENTINEL 

IT was a rainy morning in September, 1861, 
the first year of the Civil War. Judge 
Chittenden, the register of the Treasury, 
found a party of soldiers waiting for him 
when he reached his office in the Treasury 
Building, near the White House. The blue- 
coats were much excited, and all talking at 
the same time. One of them wore the bars 
of a captain. 

^' Boys,'^ said Mr. Chittenden, '^ what are 
you talking about? I cannot understand you. 
Let your captain speak. Tell me what you 
want. What can I do for you? " 

These soldiers belonged to the 3d Vermont 
regiment, made up mostly of farm boys from 

163 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Green Mountains. Since their arrival 
in Washington they had been stationed at 
Chain Bridge, some three miles above George- 
town. At this time Chain Bridge across the 
Potomac was of vital importance; for on it 
depended the safety of the capital. 

The Confederates occupied the southern 
approach to the bridge. The Union troops 
commanded the hills of Maryland on the 
opposite side. There had been no fighting. 
Indeed, the opposing forces had grown 
friendly. They used to tell each other stories 
and exchange tobacco, daily papers, and 
other things until they seemed like friends 
rather than enemies. 

It was getting to be too much for General 
Smith, the commander of the bluecoats. This 
man, commonly known as Baldy Smith, was 
a stern soldier. He now gave out some strict 
orders. Among them was one to the effect 
that a sentinel caught sleeping at his post 
was to be shot within twenty-four hours. 

According to the story told to Judge Chit- 
164 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

tenden by the captain, a boy named William 
Scott had enhsted in Company K. Brought 
up on a farm and used to hard work, he 
needed a goodly amount of sleep. Although 
not used to camp life, he had taken the place 
of a sick comrade, and passed the night on 
guard. As it happened, he was himself de- 
tailed for picket duty the very next night. 
The young fellow could not keep awake for 
two nights in succession. When the relief 
guard came round, he was found asleep. He 
was arrested, tried by court-martial, and 
found guilty. He was to be shot within 
twenty-four hours. 

^^ I promised his mother," continued the 
captain, ^^ that I would look after him as if 
he were my own son. I was stupid not to 
listen to the boy when he told me that he 
had fallen asleep during the day, and said 
he could not keep awake the second night. 
I ought to have sent somebody else, but I let 
him go to his death. If anybody is to be 
shot, I am the fellow. You will help me, 

165 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



Judge, won't you? '^ he pleaded, with tears 
in his eyes. 

'^ There is only one man on earth who can 
save your comrade. It is well for you that 
he is the best man in the whole country. 
Come with me. We will go to President 
Lincoln. '' 

Out of the Treasury Building and over to 
the White House they went, with the stately 
judge at their head; then up the stairway to 
a little office, where they found the president 
busily writing. Lincoln was the first to speak. 

^^ What is this? Do you want a furlough 
to go home and vote? You cannot have it. 
I could not get a furlough for myself if I 
asked for it." 

'' Mr. President/' said Judge Chittenden, 
'^ these men want nothing for themselves. 
They are Green Mountain boys of the 3d 
Vermont; they are good soldiers. They want 
something which you alone can give them. 
They want the life of a comrade.'' 

'' What has he done? " 
166 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Tell him/' whispered the judge to the 
captain. 

^' I cannot; I cannot do it. You can do 
it so much better." 

^^ No, no/' said Chittenden, pushing the 
officer to a place in front of Lincoln's desk; 
^^ the life of Scott depends on you; tell your 
story.'' 

The young captain began to stammer when 
he met the gaze of the great man before him. 
Overcoming his diffidence, he told the story 
in a plain, simple manner. The eager words 
bursting from the lips of the young officer 
stirred the blood of his hearers. He finished 
by asking for his comrade's life. 

'' William Scott, sir, is as brave a boy as 
there is in your army; he is no coward. The 
mountains of Vermont are the home of thirty 
thousand men who voted for Abraham Lin- 
coln. They will not say the best thing to do 
is to shoot this young fellow hke a traitor, 
and bury him like a dog. Can you say it, 
Mr. President?" 

167 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

" No, I cannot." 

The face of the great president was a study. 
It took on a soft, sad, and touching look. 
There seemed to be a mist in the depths of 
his eyes. It was only for a moment; \hen he 
broke out into a hearty laugh. 

'^ Do you Green Mountain boys fight as 
v/ell as you talk? If you do, I do not wonder 
at the stories I used to read about Colonel 
Ethan Allen. 

'^ Captain," went on Mr. Lincoln, '' I do 
not believe a brave, honest soldier, knowing 
no crime save sleeping when he was over- 
tired, ought to be shot. The country has 
better uses for him. No, your boy shall not 
be shot; that is, not to-morrow, and not till 
I know more about his case. I will attend 
to this matter myself. I have wanted to go 
out to Chain Bridge for some time. I will 
do so to-day. Good day, gentlemen." 

Later in the day President Lincoln was seen 
riding from the White House out to George- 
town, and in the direction of Chain Bridge. 

168 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Within a day or so the newspapers reported 
that a soldier sentenced to death for sleeping 
at his post had been pardoned by the presi- 
dent, and had returned to his regiment. 

It was a long time before Scott would 
speak of his interview with President Lin- 
coln. One day he told a comrade the whole 
story. 

'^ I knew the president at once/' he said, 
^' by a Lincoln medal I had long worn. I was 
scared at first, for I had never talked with a 
great man before. He asked me all about 
the folks at home, my brothers and sisters, 
and where I went to school, and how I liked 
it. Then he asked me about my mother. 
I showed him her picture. He said that if 
he were in my place he would try to make a 
fond mother happy, and never cause her a 
sorrow or a tear. 

^'^My boy,' he said, ^you are not going 
to be shot. You are going back to your regi- 
ment. I have been put to a good deal of 
trouble on your account. Now what I want 

169 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

to know is how you are going to pay me back. 
My bill is a large one; there is only one man 
in all the world who can pay it; his name is 
William Scott. If from this day you will 
promise to do your whole duty as a soldier, 
then the debt will be paid. Will you make 
that promise, and try to keep it? ' '^ 

Gladly the young Vermont soldier made 
the promise, and well did he keep it. From 
that day William Scott, the boy soldier, 
became the model man of his regiment. He 
was never absent from roll call. He was 
always on hand if there was any hard work 
to be done. He worked nights in the hospital, 
nursing the sick and wounded, because it 
trained him to keep awake. He made a 
record for himself on picket duty. As a scout, 
he became well known in the army. He re- 
fused all offers of promotion, saying that he 
had done nothing to deserve it. 

Some time after this the 3d Vermont went 
into one of its many hard battles. The men 
were ordered to dash across a small stream, 

170 







i 



HE CARRIED A WOUNDED CAPTAIN ACROSS THE RIVER TO A 
PLACE OF SAFETY. Page 171. 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

charge up the bank, and clean out the rifle 
pits of the enemy. 

The Vermonters were finally forced to 
retreat, leaving nearly half their number 
dead or wounded, in the river or on the op- 
posite shore. William Scott of Company K 
was the first to reach the bank of the river, 
the first to jump into the rifle pits, and the 
last to retreat. He carried a wounded cap- 
tain across the river to a place of safety. He 
was carrying a wounded soldier across when 
he fell, shot to pieces. His comrades carried 
him out of the line of fire, and laid him on 
the grass to die. He lived long enough to be 
put on a cot in the field hospital. 

^^ Boys, I shall never see another battle. 
I thought this would be my last. Tell Presi- 
dent Lincoln I have tried to be a good sol- 
dier and be true to the flag. Thank him again 
because he gave me a chance to die hke a 
soldier in battle, and not Hke a coward by 
the hands of my comrades.'^ 

Company K buried Wifliam Scott in a 
171 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

grove just in the rear of the camp, at the foot 
of a big oak tree. Deep into the oak they 
cut the initials ^' W. S." and under it the 
words '' A brave soldier/' 

A few weeks afterward Judge Chittenden 
told President Lincoln of the death of young 
Scott. 

'^ Poor boy! " said Mr. Lincoln, with a look 
of tenderness. " And so he is dead, and he 
sent me a word. I am truly sorry he is dead, 
for he was a good boy. Too good a boy to 
be shot for falling asleep when he could not 
help it." 



172 



XXV 

THE FIRST DAY AT GETTYSBURG 

THE summer of 1863 was perhaps the 
gloomiest period of the whole Civil 
War. In the great battle of Chancel- 
lorsville, fought early in May, the Federal 
forces under ^^ Fighting Joe " Hooker met 
the worst defeat they were to suffer during 
the war. The victory was dearly won by the 
Confederates, for Stonewall Jackson, their 
ablest general next to Lee, was mortally 
wounded and died in a few days. As events 
proved, the battle of Chancellors ville marked 
the zenith of the Confederate success. 

Flushed with victory, Lee now made ready 
to lead his army into Pennsylvania. He 
planned to draw the Army of the Potomac 
in pursuit, and thus rid Virginia of the Union 

173 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

forces. If he could only defeat Hooker again, 
the cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and 
Washington would be at his mercy, and he 
could dictate peace on Northern soil. If an 
invasion of the North was ever to be made, 
now was the time. 

Just a month after Chancellorsville, he 
began to move his army of 75,000 veterans 
toward the Shenandoah Valley. Three weeks 
later the three main divisions of the army, 
under EweU, Hill, and Longstreet, had crossed 
the Potomac into western Maryland. Shortly 
afterward Lee's whole army had crossed the 
Pennsylvania line, and was advancing rap- 
idly into the heart of the North. 

The Army of the Potomac had fought 
bravely, only to meet with disaster and de- 
feat. Even now the ablest officers could not 
believe that the gallant Hooker was the man 
to cope with Lee and his victorious army. 

The people of the North were thus threat- 
ened with the horrors of war on their own 
soil. The situation was critical enough to 

174 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

dismay the stoutest heart. The country was 
wild with all kinds of rumors. In towns and 
villages north of Mason and Dixon's line 
there was great excitement. Newspapers 
were eagerly read for the latest news. The 
people of southeastern Pennsylvania hurried 
away their horses, cattle, and sheep, to places 
of safety. Silverware, money, and other 
valuables were hid to save them from the 
enemy. Men, women, and children fled 
before the invaders, carrying their household 
goods across the Susquehanna. 

President Lincoln called for 100,000 mihtia 
from the four states most in danger. Gov- 
ernor Curtin of Pennsylvania called for^60,000 
men, ^^ to defend their soil, their families, and 
their firesides.'' Thirty regiments from Penn- 
sylvania and nineteen regiments from New 
York rallied to the defense of Harrisburg. 
On a single day it was estimated that 14,000 
men in Pittsburg were at work with pickaxes 
and shovels in throwing up intrenchments 
for the defense of the city. 

175 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

The hopes of an anxious people rested on 
the Army of the Potomac. Keeping to the 
east of the Blue Ridge^ and constantly cov- 
ering Washington, Hooker followed sharply 
on Lee's right flank. On June 27 he had 
led his army across the Potomac and made 
his headquarters at Frederick, in Maryland. 
After some disagreement with the authorities 
at Washington, he asked to be relieved. The 
command was then given to General George 
G. Meade. 

Meanwhile a scout had brought word to 
General Lee that the Army of the Potomac 
was rapidly marching northward. The Con- 
federate commander now ordered Ewell, Long- 
street, and Hill to concentrate their forces; 
for he saw that his communication with 
Virginia might be cut off at any moment, 
and that it would not be safe to advance 
farther until he had turned back and met his 
foe. 

On taking command General Meade had 
acted promptly. His main thought was " to 

176 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

find and fight the enemy." He at once 
pushed northv/ard. On the evening of June 
30 the first corps, under the command of 
General Reynolds, had crossed into Pennsyl- 
vania. The movement of the Union army 
was toward Harrisburg, the object being to 
fight the invading army at the earliest pos- 
sible moment. 

The two great armies, the extreme portions 
of which were more than forty miles apart, 
were now rapidly moving toward each other. 
The natural meeting place would be the town 
of Gettysburg, into which roads led from 
various directions. 

Gettsyburg stands on a kind of plain, 
among several ranges of hills running nearly 
north and south. The range south of the 
town, called Cemetery Ridge, bends round 
not unlike a fishhook. Several small hills 
rise from this range; among them is Round 
Top and Little Round Top on the south, 
Cemetery Hill at the bend of the fishhook, 
and Gulp's Hill near the barb. Half a mile 

177 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 



or SO west of the town is another range known 
as Seminary Ridge. 

On June 30 General Buford, who had been 
sent with 4000 cavalry to check Lee's ad- 
vance guard, passed through Gettysburg and 
camped on Seminary Ridge. 

The next morning there was a sharp 
fight between Buford's men and the Con- 
federates led by Hill. Reynolds soon joined 
Buford, Longstreet joined Hill, and the 
battle became general. About ten o'clock 
Reynolds received a sharpshooter's bullet 
and fell dead. His death was a calamity 
indeed, but it did not stay the fury of the 
battle. The Union forces were gradually 
pressed back toward Gettysburg with great 
loss. 

When General Meade heard of the death 
of Reynolds, he sent Hancock to take com- 
mand until he himself could reach the field. 
Hancock rode at full speed and reached the 
battle field about four o'clock. His presence 
restored order and inspired confidence. The 

178 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

main part of the army withdrew to a position 
on Cemetery Ridge. 

The men slept that night among the grave- 
stones. They were too tired to think of any- 
thing but their much needed rest. Thus 
ended the first day of the battle of Gettys- 
burg. The Confederates had won the day. 



179 



XXVI 

GETTYSBURG TURNS THE TIDE OF WAR 

THROUGH that hot July night the 
other divisions of the two great ar- 
mies were rapidly marching toward 
Gettysburg. It was felt that here a decisive 
battle would be fought. 

The next morning showed the two hostile 
armies about a mile apart, ready for the 
deadly struggle. The Union line, about six 
miles long, was arranged on Cemetery Ridge. 
Cannon had been placed on the rocky crest of 
the hill, and fresh troops had worked all night 
in throwing up earthworks. The Confeder- 
ates, hidden by the woods, were stationed in 
a huge semicircle, five or six miles in length, 
on Seminary Ridge. 

It was not until the afternoon that the two 
180 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

mighty armies began the dreadful combat. 
Most of the fighting took place on the two 
wings. Longstreet, with a battle line a mile 
?,nd a half long, surged hke a mighty tide 
against the left wing of the Union army; 
Ewell, on the enemy's right, made a grand 
assault on Gulp's Hill and captured it. 

A terrific hand-to-hand battle was now 
fought for the possession of Little Round 
Top. This was really the key to the situation. 
If the Confederates captured it, they could 
shell the Union army out of its strong posi- 
tion. Bayonets were crossed, muskets were 
clubbed, and stones were hurled in the fierce 
struggle. The Union troops at last took and 
held the hill, and placed a strong battery on 
Its top. 

General Lee thus summed up the result 
of the second day's fighting: '^ We attempted 
to dislodge the enemy, and though we gained 
I some ground, we were unable to get posses- 
sion of his position." 

The harvest of death was appalling. In 
181 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

the two days' fighting 40,000 men had been 
killed or wounded. The result was still in 
doubt. A feeling of gloom filled the hearts 
of the Union troops. During the night a 
council of war was called, and it was decided 
^^ to stay and fight it out." On the same 
night Lee called a council of his generals, and 
they decided to try to break through the 
Union center. 

On the morning of the third day the people 
of Gettysburg were awakened by the sound 
of guns. The Union artillery was bombard- 
ing Gulp's Hill. After four hours of fighting, 
Stonewall Jackson's troops were dislodged, 
and once more the Union line was intact. 
Lee must now retreat or try to pierce the 
Union ranks. 

For two hours a wonderful stillness brooded 
over the great battle field. The birds sang, 
and the wearied men rested beneath the 
trees. Old soldiers tell us that the sheep and 
cattle were quietly grazing in the rich pas- 
tures of the valley between the two armies, 

182 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

But the stillness only served to sharpen man's 
fears. It was only the calm that precedes 
the storm. 

In the early afternoon the silence was 
broken by the roar of more than a hundred 
cannon, which the Confederates had massed 
on Seminary Ridge. The crest of the hill 
was a hne of fire. The shot and shell were 
directed against Cemetery Ridge. 

Meade replied with eighty cannon, all that 
could well be used in the narrower space. 
The air was full of missiles. The hills seemed 
shaken to their very base. The sky appeared 
to rain fire and iron. 

The batteries on both sides suffered severely. 
Riderless horses ran hither and thither. The 
dead lay in heaps. The Union soldiers were 
partly protected by stone walls, rocks, trees, 
and earthworks. Fortunately most of the 
enemy's guns were elevated too much and 
swept the open ground in the rear. 

For nearly two hours the storm raged. 
Suddenly the Union cannon stopped their 

183 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

fire. The ammunition was running low, and 
the over-heated guns must be allowed to cool. 
At the same time preparations needed to be 
made for the more deadly combat that was 
sure to follow; for everybody knew, from 
General Meade to the humblest private, that 
the object of the artillery fire was to break 
the Union lines and prepare the way for a 
charge of infantry. 

Believing that he had silenced the Union 
batteries, General Lee now made ready to 
send a division of Longstreet's veterans, 
under General Pickett, to pierce the Federal 
center on Cemetery Ridge. 

General Longstreet did not believe that the 
movement could succeed. It was his duty, 
however, to obey his chief. He rode with 
Pickett to the crest of Seminary Ridge and 
showed him what he was expected to do. 

The decisive moment was at hand. 

" Come quickly, or my ammunition will 
not let me support you properly,'' was the 
word sent to Pickett by the chief of artillery. 

184 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

" Shall I advance? '' asked Pickett of 
Longstreet. 

The Confederate general could not speak; 
he /imply nodded his head, and burst into 
tears. 

'' Sir/' said Pickett grimly, " I shall lead 
my division forward/' 

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Pickett, 
at the head of 15,000 men, the flower of the 
Confederate infantry, rode over the woody 
crest of Seminary Ridge and began his march 
down the slope. 

^^ As he passed me," wrote Longstreet, ^' he 
rode gracefully, with his jaunty cap raked 
I well over on his right ear, and his long auburn 
locks, nicely dressed, hanging almost to his 
shoulders. He seemed a holiday soldier." 

In double column, with banners flying and 
I bayonets glittering, those 13,000 well-tried 
soldiers of the Southern army marched for- 
ward steadily and in perfect order into the 
|j open plain. 

" There they come, there they come," 
185 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

shouted the boys in blue, while they gazed 
across the plain, and watched in breathless 
admiration and suspense the long gray hnes 
advancing, as if on parade, across the 
valley. 

Flat on the ground and gripping their mus- 
kets, the Union men in grim silence lay wait- 
ing for the charge. 

When the Confederate columns were half- 
way across the plain, the Union cannon 
opened a fire of shot and shell. On, on, the 
gray-clad veterans swept, like a huge tidal 
wave. Now the Union guns poured in a 
storm of canister. The left wing of the char- 
ging lines staggered. Great gaps were torn 
in their ranks. They faltered but for a mo- 
ment. The gaps were filled with living men. 
When they came within musket range, the 
Union infantry opened a galling fire. Pick- 
ett^s gallant soldiers only quickened their 
pace, and returned volley for volley. 

General Hancock, with reckless bravery, 
rode everywhere along the Union line. A 

186 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

shot, which proved to be a tenpenny 
nail, hit him, and he fell from his horse. 
Raising himself on his elbow, he shouted, 
" Go in, boys, and give it to them on the 
flank.'' 

A gap had opened up between the Vir- 
ginia troops in the center and the Alabama 
men on the right. Stannard's famous Ver- 
mont brigade and part of a New York brigade 
charged into the opening, and turned on the 
Virginians. 

No soldiers, however brave, could endure 
such deadly cross fire. Many were killed or 
taken, many were driven back or crowded in 
on the center. A little later, reversing his 
front, Stannard attacked the Alabama troops 
on the flank and captured many men and 
('many standards. 

Since Stannard's Vermonters were new 
troops and had been stationed near Washing- 
ton, the veterans nicknamed them the ^^ paper 
collar '' brigade, some of the men having been 
seen wearing paper collars. After this famous 

187 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

flank movement, and the savage fighting that 
followed, the nickname was never again ap- 
plied to them. 

Two of the Confederate brigades, led by 
General Armistead, dashed up the slope to 
the very muzzles of the cannon, leaving a 
long line of dead and dying men behind them. 
In the last assault these brave fellows, men 
as brave as ever faced death, pushed up to 
Hancock's lines and across them. 

^' Give them cold steel, boys," shouted the 
gallant Armistead, leaping over the stone 
wall, and waving his hat on the end of his 
sword. The next instant he fell mortally 
wounded. True to his promise, a standard 
bearer named Tyler planted his colors on the 
crest of the hill. For one moment the Con- 
federate flag waved on Cemetery Ridge. 
The next instant the standard bearer and his 
standard went down together. 

Every Union officer in every battery but 
one was killed or wounded. Among them was 
young Gushing, a brother of the hero who 

188 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

captured the Albemarle. He was almost 
cut in two, but holding his body together 
with one hand, he continued the fight. 

^^ General Webb/' he cried, ^^I will give 
them one more shot." 

He fired once, and caUing out ^^ Good-by," 
fell dead at the post of duty. 

In their wild charge the brave Virginians 
had fallen into a death trap. From three 
sides Hancock's men poured in volleys of 
musketry on the wavering lines, and then 
charged bayonets. Hundreds were shot dead; 
hundreds were wounded; hundreds threw 
down their arms and rushed into the Federal 
lines. Regiments seemed to melt away and 
disappear like snowflakes on running water. 
Two thirds of Pickett^s men were dead, 
wounded, or captured. 

With a heart full of anguish the intrepid 
Pickett gave the order to retreat. The frag- 
ments of that valiant band, which only an 
hour before had advanced so proudly and with 
such high hopes of victory, now fled down the 

189 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

hill and sought refuge among their comrades 
on Seminary Ridge. 

Pickett's charge at Gettysburg was one 
of the most daring the world has ever seen. 
It failed because the odds were too great. 

The next morning, the Fourth of July, the 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, the Union flag waved over the field of 
Gettysburg. Y\^hen the news was flashed to 
the North, there was no wild rejoicing, for 
more than 23,000 of her soldiers lay dead or 
wounded. 

On the spot reached by Armistead, where 
he leaped the stone wall and laid his hands 
on a Union cannon, stands a monument to 
commemorate the repulse of Pickett's des- 
perate charge. A large, open book, supported 
on two pyramids of bronze cannon balls, 
rests on a granite base. Across the open 
book in letters of bronze are the words " High- 
Water Mark of the Rebellion." 



190 



XXVII 

OLD ABE, THE SOLDIER BIRD OF WISCONSIN 

SOLDIERS often take pet animals and 
birds to war. Thus, in the war in 
Crimea, the Russians frequently carried 
cats on their knapsacks when marching or 
fighting. The poor things used to sleep on 
their masters' shoulders. They were some- 
times found dead on the battle field. 

During our war for the Union a drummer 
from Wisconsin had a tame squirrel for a pet. 
It was taught to dance to martial music and 
to spin round the rim of its master's drum. 
A regiment from Pennsylvania had a little 
black and tan dog named Jack, which was 
in twenty battles. He was taken prisoner 
several times, and kept for a long while in a 
Southern prison. A Minnesota regiment had 

191 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

a young bear, which was in half a dozen 
battles, but came home safe. Many other 
pets, such as foxes, rabbits, coons, and 
badgers, were kept by the soldiers to pass 
away the dull hours of camp life. 

Of all the pets that the soldiers had during 
the Civil War, the great eagle carried by a 
Wisconsin regiment was more generally known 
than any other. Its name was Old Abe. It 
was also known as the " soldier bird of Wis- 
consin. '^ 

One bright morning in the early spring of 
1861, the first year of the war, a young Chip- 
pewa Indian named Chief Sky was hunting 
in the northern woods of Wisconsin. He 
spied an eagle's nest on a tall pine tree. To 
make sure of his prize, he cut the tree down 
and caught the two young eagles when they 
rolled out of the nest and were running to 
hide in the grass. 

One eagle died from the fall. Sky took 
the other home and built a nest for it in a 
tree near his wigwam. The Indian children 

192 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

were much pleased with their new pet. 
After a time the eaglet used to sit in the 
grass and watch the children play with the 
dogs. 

Now Chief Sky was poor. One day when 
he went to the village to sell maple sugar and 
moccasins, he took the young eagle along 
and sold him to a farmer for a bushel of corn. 
The farmer brought the bird to Eau Claire. 
At this time the httle town was astir with 
men going to the war. 

^^ Here's a new recruit for you, boys/' 
shouted the farmer to the soldiers. 

^^ It's a hve eagle. Hurrah for the eagle! " 
cried the boys in blue. 

'^ Hurrah for the eagle! " shouted the sol- 
diers; '' it's a bird of freedom. Let us swear 
him into the army." 

After looking at the eagle's eyes, beak, 
wings, and plumage, a trade was quickly 
made with the farmer, and the soldiers voted 
to accept ^' the new recruit from Chippewa." 
With a red, white, and blue ribbon tied about 

193 



THE CHILD S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

his neck the young eagle was sworn into the 
service amid the laughter and jokes of the 
boys of Company C. 

The bird was now taken to Madison, the 
capital of the state. While Company C was 
marching into camp with colors flying, drums 
beating, and the people cheering, the eagle at 
first sat quiet on his perch; but when the 
company passed across the parade grounds, 
he began to get excited; he seized with his 
beak one end of the flag floating over his 
head and began to flap his wings. 

The men of the 8th Wisconsin shouted and 
cheered. ^' The eagle of freedom forever, the 
bird of Columbia! Hurrah, boys! we will 
carry him to the front." They named him 
Old Abe, and the regiment was afterwards 
known as the " eagle " regiment. 

The 8th Wisconsin was soon under orders 
to go to the front. Old Abe and his regiment 
were everywhere greeted with delight. At 
St. Louis a man offered five hundred dollars 
for the bird. Another man from lUinois 

194 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

offered to give his farm for him. At La Crosse 
two hundred dollars were offered. 

'^ No/' said the commanding officer; ^^ the 
eagle belongs to the company. No money 
can buy him.'' 

During the three years that the regiment 
was in service, Old Abe was allowed to do 
pretty much as he pleased. He had many 
fights with guinea hens, and often raced with 
the negroes. 

In the morning he would fly away to the 
river, half a mile from camp, splash and play 
in the water, and return to camp when his 
bath was over. 

He was fond of a dog named Frank that 
belonged to the regiment, and would listen 
for his bark in the woods. When the dog 
returned from his hunt, Old Abe would rustle 
his wings and coax him with a low chuckle to 
share his game with him. He did not like 
hardtack, and now and then would steal a 
chicken. 

He received his rations from the commis- 
195 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

sary just as if he were a soldier. If fresh 
meat was scarce, he would go on a foraging 
trip. He might be gone two or three days, but 
would usually return with a lamb or chicken 
in his talons. However far he flew in search 
of food, on his return he was never known to 
alight save in his own regiment and among 
his own men. 

When surprised, he whistled sharply. His 
scream during a battle was a trill of five or 
six notes. He was fond of music, especially 
^^ Yankee Doodle '' and ^^ Old Hundred.^' 
On parade he always gave heed to '^ Atten- 
tion ''; with his eye on the colonel of the regi- 
ment he would listen and obey orders, noting 
time accurately. After a parade he would 
put off the air of a soldier, flap his wings, and 
make himself at home. 

Old Abe was in more than a score of battles 
and fully as many skirmishes. His regiment 
was never defeated. Not one of its standard 
bearers was ever shot down. Once or twice 
the eagle was hit by a spent bullet, and lost 

196 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

a feather or two. As the battle grew hotter 
and hotter, he would flap his wings, jumping 
up and down on his perch, and shriek his 
war cry with such wild, fearful notes as only 
an eagle can utter. With head erect, he faced 
the whizzing bullets and crashing shells with 
no signs of fear. 

General Price of the Confederate army 
gave orders to his men to capture the eagle. 
He said he had rather get him than a dozen 
battle flags. 

At last the war came to an end, and the 
Wisconsin 8th, with its eagle and its torn 
and battle-stained flag, went back to Madi- 
son. The regiment had gone out to the war 
a thousand strong, and returned a little band, 
scarred and worn. Old Abe was presented 
to the State of Wisconsin. The governor 
accepted the gift, and provided quarters in 
the basement of the beautiful capitol. The 
bird's attendant was one of the soldiers who 
had carried him during the war. 

Old Abe's services for his country, however, 
197 



THE CHILD ^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

did not end here. At the great fair in Chicago, 
in 1875, he was an honored guest at the re- 
union of the Grand Army of the Repubhc. 
Thousands of photographs of the old eagle 
were sold for the benefit of poor and sick 
soldiers. 

At the centennial celebration in Philadel- 
phia, in 1876, Old Abe occupied a prominent 
place. Thousands of visitors from all parts 
of the country paid their respects to him. 

In 1881, surrounded by his comrades. Old 
Abe died in the arms of his keeper. The 
eagle was then stuffed and kept on exhibition 
in the capitol. A few years ago a fire took 
place, and in the words of a veteran and com- 
rade of Old Abe, ^^ The mortal remains of 
our immortal bird were utterly consumed.^' 



198 



XXVIII 



^' THE STAR - SPANGLED BANNER '^ 



" 'Tis the star-spangled banner; oh, long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! " 

OUR national flag is often called the 
star-spangled banner. The thirteen 
stripes stand for the thirteen original 
colonies. There is a star for every state. 
The red of the flag says, '' Be brave; '^ the 
white says, " Be pure and good; " the blue 
says, ^^ Be true.^' When we look at the flag 
of our nation, let us think of these three 
beautiful words: Bravery, Goodness, Truth. 

The words at the beginning of our story 
are from that stirring song called " The Star- 
Spangled Banner, '^ written by Francis Scott 
Key, a young lawyer of Baltimore. During 
our second war with England, a hundred 

199 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

years ago, the British had taken the city of 
Washington and burned the pubhc buildings. 
They now made ready to capture Baltimore. 
While the British fleet was at anchor in Ches- 
apeake Bay, below Baltimore, the young law- 
yer was allowed to row out to the flagship of 
the fleet to visit a friend who had been cap- 
tured and was held as a prisoner. 

With Key still on board, the British fleet 
sailed up Chesapeake Bay. Alarm guns 
were fired and signal fires lighted along the 
shore to warn the people of the coming of the 
enemy. Household goods were hastily thrown 
into farm wagons and wheelbarrows, and 
hurried away into the country. The water 
of the bay was so shallow, however, that the 
British vessel could not get within range of 
Baltimore. 

'' We will bombard the forts first, '^ said 
the British admiral; ^^ we can batter them 
down in a few hours and then march up and 
take the city.'^ 

The chief protection of Baltimore was Fort 
200 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

McHenry. If this were taken, the city was 
doomed. All day long the British fleet hurled 
shot and shell into the fortification. 

^' Baltimore is safe so long as the fort holds 
out/' said Key to himself. 

The young lawyer now found himself in an 
unpleasant situation. The British admiral 
would not allow him to leave the warship. 

" You must stay on board until we take the 
city." 

Key made the best of it. He quietly 
watched the bombardment of Fort Mc- 
Henry. After dark he paced the deck, ex- 
cited and anxious. By the light of the blazing 
cannon and the bursting shells he saw that 
the flag still waved over the fort. 

At midnight the firing suddenly stopped. 

^' Has the fort surrendered? Oh, if daylight 
would only come! '' 

At last came the gray of the dawn. He 
strained his eyes to catch a glimpse through 
the early morning mist. 

^^ Thank God! our flag is still there/' he 
201 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

cried when the Stars and Stripes floated out 
on the morning breeze; ^^ the fort holds out. 
Baltimore is safe/' 

In his joy and excitement the young man 
took an old letter from his pocket and on its 
back wrote in pencil the words of the song. 

At sunrise the British gave up the attack 
on Fort McHenry. The warships were soon 
sailing down Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore 
was safe. 

During the same morning Key was allowed 
to go home. He made a copy of his song and 
gave it to a friend. This friend had it printed 
as a handbill and scattered through the 
city. 

^^ Hear this, hear this, you people, and tell 
me what you think of it. Let me read it to 
you, and see if it does not stir your blood,'' 
shouted a young man, rushing into the Hving 
room of a tavern. He mounted a chair and 
with ringing voice read the verses to a crowd 
of patriots celebrating the failure of the 
British to capture their city. 

202 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

^' Sing it. Sing it. Let us hear how it 
sounds/' cried his companions. 

He started the words to an old and favorite 
tune, and all joined him. 

The public eagerly took up the new song. 
It was sung in the taverns, the theaters, 
everywhere. It spread like magic all over 
the country. For a hundred years the good 
old tune and its thrilling words have stirred 
the minds and hearts of our people. 

" Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 

Between their loved homes and the war's deso- 
lation ! 
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven- 
rescued land 
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved 
us a nation. 

" Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto, ' In God is our trust,' 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall 
wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the 
brave." 



203 



XXIX 

THE THIRTIETH OF MAY 

HOW dear to the hearts of our people 
Memorial Day is! Its story is sad 
and pathetic, although even to the 
white-headed soldier the dreadful war seems 
like a dream out of the distant past. 

The day is given over to the memory of 
those brave men who fifty years ago fought 
and died in the Civil War: the boys in blue, 
led by Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan; and 
the boys in gray, under the command of Lee, 
Stonewall Jackson, and Longstreet. 

The celebration of this day began a good 
many years ago, in the South. A few sad- 
faced women met each year to scatter flowers 
on the graves of their soldiers. Little by 

204 



THE CHILD^S BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

little the day began to be observed in the 
North as well as in the South. And now May 
30, Memorial Day, is set apart all over our 
land as a glorious but pathetic reminder of 
those who gave their lives for their cause. 

With each year the custom has grown to 
decorate the graves not only of the soldiers, 
but also of all our dead. 

" Bring flowers to strew again 
With fragrant purple rain 
Of lilacs, and of roses white and red, 
The dwellings of our dead." 

The flag is at half-mast. Here with feeble 
steps grizzled heroes march in the ranks of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, escorted 
by young soldiers in showy uniforms. Now 
comes a line of schoolgirls dressed in white. 
All have their flowers; all turn their steps 
toward the cemetery. After the few simple 
words of the Grand Army ritual, the flowers 
are scattered where the soldiers lie buried, 
the graves being marked by tiny flags. 

205 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

*' Under the sod and the dew, 
Waiting the judgment day; 
Under the roses, the Blue; 
Under the hhes, the Gray." 

To the stirring music of the band the httle 
procession marches home. Here and there a 
few women and children Hnger at the grave 
of some loved one who has passed away since 
the last Memorial Day. Bunches of roses 
and lilacs are tenderly put on the freshly 
turned sod. Then God's acre takes on its 
usual quiet. 

The lesson of the day should sink into our 
hearts; and the passing years should deepen 
our reverence for those brave men who for 
our sakes gave the best they had to give. 

" Yes, bring fresh flowers and strew the soldier ^s grave, 
Whether he proudly lies 
Beneath our Northern skies, 
Or where the Southern palms their branches wave. 
Let the bells toll and wild war music swell. 
And for one day the thought of all the past, 
Of all those memories vast, 
Come back and haunt us with its mighty spell. 
206 



THE child's book OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

Bring flowers, then, once again. 
And strew with fragrant rain 
Of lilacs, and of roses white and red, 
The dwellings of our dead." 



207 



APPENDIX 

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE AND READING IN THE 
STUDY OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

This book is intended to serve as a convenient basis for 
more extended work on the part of both teacher and pupils. 
It should be used either before the formal textbook on 
American history Js begun, or may be read in connection 
with it. Hence, to the study of the preceding chapters 
should be added a more or less extended course in supple- 
mentary reading. 

The following plan is suggested, which may be readily 
modified to meet the needs of any particular grade or class 
of pupils: 

1. Reference Books for Teachers of American 
History 

Channing and Hart's Guide to American History ($2.00) is 
of special value to teachers. This book is replete with sug- 
gestions, hints, and helps on collateral study, with numerous 
references, detailed lists of topics, and a wide range of other 
subjects. 

The subject of reference books on American history is well 
treated in Montgomery's American History (see " Short List 
of Books," in Appendix), and Fiske's History of the United 
States (see Appendix). 

For brief extracts from documents and from original ma- 

209 



APPENDIX 

terials pertaining to the Colonial period and the Revolution, 
admirably edited for school use, consult Hart's " Source- 
Readers in American History: " No. 1, Colonial Children 
(40 cts.) ; No. 2, Camps and Firesides of the Revolution (50 
cts.); No. 3, How our Grandfathers Lived (60 cts.). 

The Introductions in these three books are suggestive 
and of practical value to teachers of history. 

For a study of a few great epochs of history, identical in 
point of time with the epochs of our own history as a land 
and as a people, the teacher may consult Mann's America 
in its Relation to the Great Epochs of History ($1.00). 

Historical Sources in Schools, A Report to the New Eng- 
land History Teachers' Association by a Select Committee, 
Part V, American History (60 cts.), is useful in advance 
work. 

2. School Textbooks for Reading and Reference 

Teachers and pupils should have easy access, by means of 
the pubhc or school library, or otherwise, to one or more of 
the formal school textbooks on American history. These 
books are useful for additional topics, for dates, maps, illus- 
trations, reference tables, and for filling in subjects which 
do not come within the scope of this book. In connection 
with this book, especially in advanced work. Mace's School 
History of the United States ($1.00), Gordy's History of the 
United States ($1.00), Thwaites and Kendall's History of the 
United States ($1.00), Elson's School History of the United 
States (90 cts.), Larned's History of the United States ($1.40), 
Montgomery's Leading Facts of American History ($1.00), 
McMaster's Brief History of the United States ($1.00), Fiske's 
History of the United States ($1.00), Lawler's Essentials of 
American History ($1.00), Channing's Short History of the 

210 



APPENDIX 

United States ($1.00), Morris's History of the United States 
($1.00), Eggleston's New Century History of the United States 
($1.00), and Barnes's School History of the United States 
($1.00) are recommended. 

If less difficult and smaller textbooks are desirable, the fol- 
lowing books are recommended: Gordy's Elementary History 
of the United States (65 cts.), Thorpe's School History of the 
United States (80 cts.), Channing's First Lessons in United 
States History (60 cts.), Montgomery's Beginner's American 
History (60 cts.), Morris's Primary History of the United States 
(60 cts.), Tappan's Our Country's Story (65 cts.), Montgom- 
ery's Elementary American History (75 cts.), Blaisdell's Story 
of American History (60 cts.), Barnes's Elementary History 
of the United States (60 cts.), and Eggleston's First Book 
in American History (60 cts.). 

3. Elementary Books for Supplementary Reading 

Teachers and pupils should also have quick reference to a 
few inexpensive supplementary reading books from, which 
topics may be read by the pupil, or from which may be read 
sparingly passages mdicated by the teacher. Read the desig- 
nated works, not as a whole, but by topics or by selec- 
tions. 

The following books are recommended for supplementary 
reading in connection with this book. They have been 
written by competent people and in an interesting style. If 
wisely used they will do much to awaken and maintain a 
lively interest in American history. 

McMurry's Pioneer History Stories, three books (40 cts. 
each). 

First Book. Pioneers on Land and Sea. 

Second Book. Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley. 

211 



APPENDIX 

Third Book. Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains and 
the West. 

Hodgdon's First Course in American History, two books 
(65 cts. each). 

Book I. Discoverers, Explorers, and Colonists. 
Book II. The National Period. 

Southworth's Builders of Our Country, two books (60 cts. 
each). 

Blaisdell's Story of American History (60 cts.). 

Blaisdell and Ball's Hero Stories from American History 
(50 cts.). 

Blaisdell and Ball's Short Stories from American History 
(40 cts.). 

Blaisdell and Ball's American History Story-Booh (50 
cts.). 

Tappan's American Hero Stories (55 cts.). 

Tappan's Our Country's Story (65 cts.). 

Montgomery's Beginner's American History (60 cts.). 

Montgomery's Elementary American History (75 cts.). 

Barnes's Elementary History of the United States (60 
cts.). 

Century Readings in United States History, 6 volumes (50 
cts. each). 

Dodge's Stories of American History (30 cts.). 

Fassett's Colonial Life in New Hampshire (60 cts.). 

Gordy's Colonial Days (50 cts.). 

Gordy's American Leaders and Heroes (60 cts.). 

Gordy's American Explorers (50 cts.). 

Eggleston's First Book in American History (60 cts.). 

Morris's Primary History of the United States (60 cts.). 

Roosevelt's Stories of the Great West (60 cts.). 

To show how some of the preceding books may be utilized 
by the teacher or pupil in the study of " Columbus," the 

212 



APPENDIX 

first chapter in this book, we give below some of the best 
passages which may be used in the classroom to illustrate 
this topic. 

Columbus, the Wool-combers' Boy 

McMurry's Pioneer History Stories, Book I, page 122; 
Hodgdon's First Course in American History, Book I, p. 20; 
South worth's Builders of Our Country, Book I, p. 24; Blais- 
dell's Story of American History, p. 10; Barnes's Elementary 
History, p. 7; Montgomery's A Beginner's American History, 
p. 1; Montgomery's Elementary American History, p. 1; 
Gordy's American Leaders and Heroes, p. 1; Eggleston's 
First Book in American History, p. 1 ; Tappan's Our Country's 
Story, p. 1; Tappan's American Hero Stories, p. 1; Morris's 
Primary History of the United States, p. 9 . 

4, Home Reading 

While engaged in the study of this book pupils should 
limit their home reading to such books and selections as 
bear directly on the subject. Under this head teachers may 
suggest books which belong to the story-book order. Whole- 
some books of fiction and semifiction may certainly do much 
to stimulate and hold the attention of young students. Thus, 
Churchill's Richard Carvel and Cooper's Pilot furnish stirring 
scenes in the career of Paul Jones. Read selections from 
Cooper's The Spy for an account of a stirring period of the 
Revolution and from Beecher's Norwood for a graphic de- 
scription of the Battle of Gettysburg. In the home reading, 
as in all other collateral reading, the teacher should exercise 
a careful supervision. 

Stories based on historical facts, which may help to 

213 



APPENDIX 

make more vivid to young pupils of to-day the perils and 
hardships endured by their forefathers in the settlement of 
this country, may be found in two series by Mary P. Wells 
Smith. The four books of the first series, " The Young Puri- 
tan Series,'' are The Young Puritans of Old Hadley ($1.25), 
The Young Puritans in King Philip's War ($1.25), The Young 
Puritans in Captivity ($1.25), The Young and Old Puritans 
of Hatfield ($1.25). The four books of the second series, 
" The Old Deerfield Series," are The Boy Captive of Old 
Deerfield ($1.25), The Boy Captive in Canada ($1.25), Boijs of 
the Border ($1.25), Boys and Girls of Seventy-Seven ($1.25). 

The books in the " Stuart Schuyler Series " by John 
Preston True are among the most satisfactory historical 
stories written for young people. The four volumes of the 
series are Scouting for Washington ($1.50), Morgan's Men 
($1.50), On Guard! Against Tory and Tarleton ($1.50), 
Scouting for Light-Horse Harry ($1.50). 

Selections from the following books may prove instructive 
and wholesome for home reading in connection with the use 
of the several books of the historical readers: The Boys' 
Parkman (60 cts.) ; The Struggle for a Continent (Selections 
from Parkman) ($1.50); Dr. Charles A. Eastman's Smoky 
Day's Wigwam Evenings (Indian Stories Retold) (60 cts.); 
Gettemy's True Story of Paul Revere ($1.50) ; " Young Heroes 
of the Navy Series " ($1.00 each) : Farragut; Paul Jones; The 
Hero of Lake Erie (Perry); The Hero of Manila (Dewey). 
Coffin's Boys of '76 ($2.00) ; Boys of '61 ($2.00) ; Old Times in 
the Colonies ($2.00). Brooks's Century Book of the American 
Colonies ($1.50) ; Brooks's Century Book of the American Revo- 
lution ($1.50). 

The work in history should be enlivened by reading occa- 
sionally, before the class or the school, poems which bear 
directly on the general topic under consideration. For in- 

214 



APPENDIX 

stance, in the appropriate chapters of these historical readers 
Finch's poem, " Nathan Hale," Simms's " Ballad of King's 
Mountain," Longfellow's " Paul Revere's Ride," Long- 
fellow's " The Skeleton in Armor," and " The Courtship of 
Miles Standish," Joaquim Miller's " Columbus," Thackeray's 
" Pocahontas," Mrs. Hemans's " Landing of the Pilgrims," 
Whittier's " Lexington," Bryant's " The Twenty-second of 
February," Whitman's " Captain! My Captain! " (Death 
of Lincoln), Holmes's " Old Ironsides," " Freedom, our 
Queen," " God Save the Flag," and " The Battle of Bunker 
Hill " may be useful for home reading, school declamation, 
or reading in concert. 

5. Hints on the Use of a Notebook 

Teacher and pupil should appreciate the scope and the use- 
fulness of a notebook. This may be a blank book of a con- 
venient size, of at least forty-eight pages. In it brief notes 
should be written carefully, with ink, as the several chapters 
of this book are read or studied. 

Make brief notes of the various books read in whole or in 
part; of topics not treated in this book but discussed in the 
class, such as " The Treason of Benedict Arnold," " Old 
Ironsides," " The Visit of Lafayette," '' Nathan Hale, the 
Patriot Spy," and " Israel Putnam." 

This notebook should be illustrated with inexpensive re- 
productions (bought for about one cent each) of famous 
pictures illustrating important events in American history. 
Catalogues giving the titles, cost, and other details are fre- 
quently advertised. 

Pupils should become familiar with and use in their note- 
books such reproductions as Stuart's " Washington "; Faed's 
"Washington at Trenton"; Trumbull's "The Surrender 

215 



APPENDIX 

of Cornwallis " and " Signing the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence"; Benjamin West's '' Penn's Treaty"; Leutze's 
''Washington Crossing the Delaware"; Vanderlyn's "The 
Landing of Columbus"; and Johnson's "Old Ironsides." 
Many other historical subjects will suggest themselves. 

Portraits, maps, facsimiles of documents and autographs, 
etc., etc., are easily obtained from publishers' catalogues, 
guidebooks, advertising pages, and secondhand textbooks. 

All this illustrative material should be neatly pasted in the 
notebook at the proper place, with plenty of space for mar- 
gins. The book will be a pleasant reminder of school days. 



216 



THE PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES 



^sop, e'sop 
Alabama, al-a-bah'ma 
Albemarle, arbe-marl 
Alexander, al-eg-zan'der 
Allegheny, are-ga-ny 
Allerton, al'er-tun 
Amesbury, aims'ber-y 
Arabia, a-ra'bi-a 
Arlington, ar'ling-tun 
Armistead, ar'mis-ted 

B 

Bahama, ba-ha'ma 
Baltimore, borti-more 
Bermuda, ber-mu'da 
Bimini, bee'mi-nee 
Braddock, brad'uk 
Buford, bu'ford 
Bunyan, bun'yan 



Cabot, kab'ut 
California, kal-i-for'ni-a 
Carolina, kar-o-li'na 
Charleston, charls'tun 
Cherokee, cher-o-ke' 
Chesapeake, ches'a-peek 
Chicago, shi-kah'go 
Chippewa, chip'e-wah 
Chittendon, chit'ten-dun 
Christopher, kris'to-fer 



Columbus, ko-lum'bus 
Concord, cong'kord 
Connecticut, kon-net'i-kut 
Craigie, krag'y 
Crimea, kri-me'a 
Cumberland, kum'ber-land 

D 

Decatur, de-ka'tur 
Dorothy, dor'o-thy 
Duquesne, doo-kan' 

E 

Eau Claire, o klar' 
Eleanor, era-nor 
Ethan, e'than 
Ewell, u'el {u as in use) 

F 

Ferdinand, fer'di-nand 
Francisco, fran-sis'ko 

G 

Gettysburg, get'iz-burg 
Gist, jist 

H 
Haverhill, ha'ver-il 

I 

Illinois, il-i-noi' 
Indiana, in-di-an'a 
Isabella, iz-a-beFa 
Isaiah, i-za'yah 



217 



THE PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES 



Kentucky, ken-tuk'y 

L 

Labrador, lab-ra-dor' 
Lexington, lek'sing-tun 

M 
Madison, mad'i-sun 
Massachusetts, 

mas-a-choo'sets 
Massasoit, Mas'-a-soit 
McHenry, mak-hen'ry 
Merrimac, mer'i-mak 
Minnesota, min-e-so'ta 
Mississippi, mis-is-sip'y 
Munroe, mun-ro' 

N 
Narragansett, nar-a-gan'set 
Nolichucky, nori-chuk-y 

O 

Orleans, or'le-anz 

P 

Panama, pan-a-mah' 
Plymouth, plim'uth 
Pocahontas, po-ka-hon'tas 
Ponce de Leon, pon'tha da 

la-on', or pons de le'un 
Porto Rico, por'to re'ko 
Potomac, po-to'mak 
Powhatan, pow-ha-tan' 
Provincetown, 

prov'ins-town 



Raleigh, raw'ly 
Revere, re-ver' 
Reynolds, ren'ulz 
Roanoke, ro'a-noke 
Robertson, rob'ert-sun 
Roxbury, rox'ber-y 
Russian, rush'an 



Sacramento, sak-ra-men'to 
St. Louis, saint loo'is 
Samoset, sam'o-set 
Sebastian, se-bas'chan 
Sevier, se-ver' 
Shawnee, shaw-ne' 
Shenandoah, shen-an-do'a 
Sheridan, sher'i-dan 
Somerset, sum'er-set 
Somerville, sum'er-vil 
Spaniard, span'yard 
Squanto, skwon'to 
Susquehanna, 
sus-kwe-han'a 



Tecumseh, te-kum'seh 
Tennessee, ten-es-se' 
Thames, temz 
Tippecanoe, tip-e-ca-noo' 

W 
Watauga, wah-tah'ga 



RD 



5 ^4 



218 







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